A well-run school has nothing to fear from more information being available to parents and the public, writes Brian Fleming
Nobody involved in the education world can seriously quarrel with the statement, in Monday's editorial, that "there is something of an education vacuum about schools and their performance".
Indeed, The Irish Times has been campaigning on this issue for some years now.
The case put forward for more information is usually based on accountability, and that is very valid. Significant sums of public money are involved and the taxpayer is entitled to information and more particularly, parents are entitled to know what sort of a service they are receiving.
A second justification which isn't often highlighted is the need to bring about improvement in schools. All institutions are capable of improvement, including schools.
Accordingly, it is very important that the Minister's recent initiative in this regard bears these two objectives in mind. We need to devise a system of sharing information with parents and the community generally, which will enable schools to improve the services they offer.
In the absence of any comprehensive information it is understandable that the media highlight the league tables of progression to third-level education.
However, few would argue that this information is of any significant value. Similarly, websites whereby people can make anonymous comments about teachers are hardly likely to bring about improvement and don't deserve serious consideration.
While all of this debate has been raging, it has surprised me that attention hasn't focused on a more or less ready-made vehicle which has existed for some time. After a pilot project some years ago, the Department of Education inspectorate rolled out a Whole School Evaluation exercise about 18 months ago.
As it happens, Collinstown Park Community College was the first school examined. In our case the work was carried out early last year and involved seven members of the inspectorate. They approached the task in a most professional and sensitive manner. A new experience like this is somewhat unnerving for those working in schools, but I and my colleagues would have nothing but the height of praise for the approach taken by the inspectorate.At the same time, parents and others can rest assured that the exercise as we experienced it was rigorous. Every aspect of the school was looked at in quite considerable detail.
Obviously at the outset of this exercise there was some concern in our staffroom. At the same time, I welcomed the fact that this exercise was being carried out. Some may feel that the likely outcome of such an exercise is to highlight deficiencies in schools and, as already said, there are shortcomings in every human institution.
From my point of view the benefit to be gained was two-fold. Firstly, it would highlight the excellent work being carried out by my colleagues and reaffirm them in a public manner. Teaching is quite an isolated profession and maybe in recent years such people aren't getting enough public support.
Secondly, we anticipated some suggestions for improvement. The approach taken was so professional that I decided that it would be worthwhile, in the interests of the school, its pupils and parents, if we were to publish the report on our school website. As it happened, when the report was sent to us in May of last year it ran to 23 pages.
It was not feasible to place it on the website so we contented ourselves with a summary (www.collinstownpark.ie). Like any other endeavour, the process itself is capable of improvement and indeed we made some suggestions to the inspectorate in this regard. I am confident that, given the level of leadership available now in the inspectorate, such suggestions and others will be considered in detail.
I have no doubt that the process will improve as time goes by. At the same time, I have some concerns.
The service as provided to the pupils in this school reflect the activities of the school itself but also those of the Department of Education and in our case, because of the sector we are involved in, those of the VEC.
However, the exercise as we experienced it focused totally on the school. Of particular concern in this regard is what seems to me a reluctance on the part of the inspectorate to consider the question of the resources made available to the school by the various authorities.
It was somewhat ironic to get suggestions for some minor improvements at the same time as the financial resources available to the school were reducing. If we are to look at the education system we need to look not just at schools, but at the Department of Education also.
The Minister in her recent letter to the education partners has taken a welcome initiative to try to improve the amount of information available to parents and the public generally.
From our experience, I can commend the Whole School Evaluation exercise to parents and indeed to fellow teachers. Obviously, teacher unions, and indeed management bodies, will approach this issue carefully.
The unions have a right and a duty to protect their members. A school that is well run with teachers that are working in a professional manner, which applies in the vast majority of cases, has nothing to fear from this exercise.
At the same time, parents, the community generally and, most importantly, our children and young people have everything to gain.
Brian Fleming is principal of Collinstown Park Community College in Clondalkin