IPPN

Published: 08 January 2009

Source: Irish Independent

By Fegus Black

EDUCATION Minister Batt O'Keeffe was last night accused of doing a "humiliating" U-turn after he appeared to confirm his support for schools to release exam information.

Meanwhile, the row deepened after the Teachers' Union of Ireland yesterday claimed the move would inevitably lead to the publication of national league tables of exam results.

The minister signalled his intentions in an address to the annual conference of the schools inspectorate last night when he said he wanted schools to give more information to parents, as well as to local communities, about the school's performance in general.

"Many schools are good at making policies available to parents. But I would like to see more information about the school's real progress," he said.

Mr O'Keeffe said schools needed to share information about admission policies, about the school's achievements and performance, its priorities for development and its strategic plans for improvement.

Fine Gael described his latest announcement as a "humiliating U-turn" in FF policy and said it would inevitably lead to the publication of exam results league tables.

FG's party's education spokesman Brian Hayes said the minister needed to state very clearly if he was in favour of the publication of annual school reports which would include performance in State and in-house exams.

"That is what Fine Gael suggested over five years ago but it was rubbished by Fianna Fail. If he is saying he will do that, I welcome it but either way it's a humiliating U-turn," said Mr Hayes.

The Teachers Union of Ireland said it had long sought that State-funded schools be completely publicly accountable and the union welcomed any move towards this ideal.

However, TUI general secretary Peter MacMenamin said they believed the publication of exam results "would inevitably lead to the production of school league tables".

- Fergus Black