Teachers should face tests every five years to ensure that they are performing up to standard, while the school year should be extended, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has said.
Outlining demands for a major reform of the Irish education system, Mr Kenny said it is "stuck in the last century" and must be overhauled if economic prosperity is to be protected.
Each child entering secondary school should be given a laptop computer, backed up by specially-designed course material, while pupils should also face standardised literacy and numeracy tests.
Teachers working in difficult schools troubled by truancy, unemployment and drugs should receive premium payments, he told a private meeting of the party's policy forum yesterday.
The need for greater investment in, and reform of, the education system will be one of Mr Kenny's major platforms in the run-up to the general election, Fine Gael made clear last night.
Thirty per cent of pupils, according to recent surveys, are leaving school unable to read and write properly "because they are slipping through the system", the party said.
Highlighting "three major threats to Ireland's future prosperity", the Fine Gael leader said "deep pockets of disadvantage" still persist, despite Ireland's wealth, along with poor levels of literacy and numeracy.
He criticised "the political complacency of 'good enough' and the recklessness that 'more of the same' will drive our economy and guarantee our wealth in the future. The philosophy of 'good enough' can never be enough for Ireland's children".
A schools' excellence fund, starting with €100 million, should be created to support the recruitment of new teachers and introduce locally-generated reforms to improve schools.
"Given the extra demands being imposed on our secondary schools, we should work towards lengthening either the school day or the school year," Mr Kenny told party colleagues.
Extra money should be given to build new schools, complete with science laboratories, information technology-equipped classrooms and sports facilities, while the budget should be protected from being used for other purposes.
Describing the laptop as "the school bag of the future", Mr Kenny said that every pupil entering secondary school within five years should be given one free by the State.
New planning rules must be introduced to ensure that schools open "when and where necessary", particularly in new communities, which are often currently plagued with a lack of places or inadequate classrooms.
The existing Whole School Evaluation system run by the Department of Education and Science should be overhauled, he said, to allow annual reports showing how each school has performed.
These reports would show parents discipline and bullying policies, results, subjects, extra-curricular activities and facilities.
School principals should be given fixed-term contracts rather than jobs for life, to "encourage innovation and new thinking", while the services of the best should be retained after retirement as a "bank" of experience.
The radical education plan, covering reform, technology and investment, was necessary "to future-proof our economy and wealth for the next generation", the Fine Gael leader said. Nothing less than a quantum leap was necessary for Ireland to become a major player in the knowledge economy, he said, adding: "We have to radically transform the way we approach our education system. . ."
