Teachers face on-the-spot tests in surprise school inspections [Independent.ie]
- Published: 16 June 2011
SECOND-LEVEL schools are to start getting surprise visits from Department of Education inspectors.
Teachers will only know about it when an inspector arrives in the school, rather than having advance notice and time to prepare.
It is already happening in primary schools and is part of a move to get an accurate picture of what is going on in the classroom and improve standards, where necessary.
Unannounced inspections in primary schools have produced some shocking findings, with one-in-four teachers found not to have lessons prepared on the day.
A report last year on the inspections carried out in 450 primary schools in 2010 also revealed that teaching practice in about one-in-six classes was not satisfactory.
Those inspections covered 800 English lessons and 500 lessons in Maths
There is an increasing focus on the quality of the education system arising from the findings of the OECD global survey last year that showed that Irish 15-year-olds are only average in maths and science and have fallen from fifth to 17th place in literacy.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
