Parents are set to gain access to Department of Education school inspection reports under new plans being prepared by the Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin.
Parents will be able to find out how the department rates the performance of the school in overall terms. But they will not be given information on specific teachers or on exam results.
The move is seen as an attempt to head off demands for school league tables while meeting an appetite for more information.
The Minister has convened a series of meetings with the teacher unions, school managements and parents' representatives for next month. In a confidential letter, she repeats her opposition to league tables, but backs publication of school inspectors' reports, which she says could make a "significant contribution to providing accurate and balanced information on schools".
Last night, John Carr, general secretary of the INTO, said that his union would enter next month's meeting in an open and flexible way. But he emphasised that the INTO remained "totally opposed to the production of school league tables".
In her letter to the education partners the Minister says that inspection reports could help parents when selecting a school by providing information on the "educational opportunities" provided.
The publication of school inspection reports on primary schools was banned earlier this year in a Supreme Court ruling. Responding to this ban, Ms Fionnuala Kilfeather, of the National Parents' Council (Primary), said that the Republic was "caught in a time-warp where parents and the public cannot get information about schools". The Information Commissioner, Ms Emily O'Reilly, has also backed the publication of inspection reports.
The Supreme Court said that publication of the reports could lead to the compilation of school league tables. The ruling overturned an earlier High Court decision in which the Department of Education had been ordered to release the information to The Irish Times.
Inspection reports, prepared by the Department of Education inspectorate, provide an overview of how a school is performing. The reports are circulated to schools, but have never been published. Reports are also compiled as part of the new Whole School Evaluation (WSE) process, which looks at the overall performance of a school.
In her letter, Ms Hanafin maintains that the "provision of adequate information on schools is one of the challenges facing us in the Irish education system". She says that inspection reports from the WSE and other evaluations are "fully sensitive to the context in which the school operates in a way which is not possible with league tables".
The Minister sees next month's meetings as part of a wide consultation on the issue of information on schools. She hopes to establish a new "regulatory framework" which will protect the interests of all concerned.
Two years ago, the Department of Education - without naming any schools - published a document based on 50 inspectors' reports. This found that crumbling buildings and tuition charges in schools which were supposed to be free were just some of the problems facing primary schools.
Teachers were generally praised for their performance, but the report said that a minority did not make adequate preparation before classes. It also highlighted the poor state of primary school buildings throughout the State.
