While there is much that is commendable in the education system in this State, there remains something of an information vacuum about schools and their performance. Indeed, one respected parents' representative, Fionnuala Kilfeather, of the National Parents' Council (Primary), says the Republic's education system exists in a kind of "time warp where parents and the public cannot get information on schools".
The Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, has acknowledged the issue in a letter to the education partners - teachers, parents and school managers. She says the "provision of adequate information on schools is one of the challenges facing us in the Irish education system". Her preferred solution involves the publication of school inspectors' reports, compiled by the Department's own staff. These reports, she says, are fully "sensitive to the context in which a school operates in a way which is not possible with league tables". The Minister remains resolute in her opposition to league tables based on exam results which, she says, give only a limited picture, while damaging some schools in the process.
Her plan is for what one might call a "kinder, gentler" form of school information. Parents will be able to find out how the department rates the performance of a school in overall terms - but they will not be given information on specific teachers or on exam results. Ms Hanafin is correct when she says there is much of value to parents in the school inspection reports. There is information about the standard of school accommodation, the overall standard of tuition and the financial burden placed on parents in many supposedly free public schools because of inadequate maintenance and capitation grants. The Minister hopes that a series of meetings with the education partners will lead to agreement on a new framework for publishing the inspection reports.
All of this is praiseworthy - but there is a sense that the public debate has already moved on. The phenomenal success of the ratemyteacher.ie website and the huge popularity of the school league tables published in The Irish Times and elsewhere underline this.
In all of this it is too easy to demonise the parent who wants what one might call harder information on exam results and school performance. For every parent, choosing a school for their son or daughter is one of the most important life decisions they will make. Most sensible parents are interested in drama, sport, music and much else in a school. But they also want some form of reassurance that their child will achieve his/her academic potential. At the moment, the choice of school is often grounded in local gossip and anecdote, much of it unfair to individual schools and teachers.
Ms Hanafin deserves credit for acknowledging the information vacuum which exists. Publication of school inspectors' reports could make a real difference. But her initiative seems unlikely to stop the public clamour for yet more information on schools.