Subject inspections: While fee-paying schools can avail of the most up-to-date facilities, others in the free sector struggle to gain access to basic supports, subject inspection reports for second level indicate.
Other issues to emerge include: Too few hours dedicated in some schools to certain subjects - mainly mathematics and science. And a lack of variety in the teaching methods employed.
However, inspectors are broadly complimentary of the commitment and enthusiasm shown by teachers and staff in the majority of schools. Most of the schools, including those in disadvantaged areas, are also found to have acceptable facilities.
Inspectors assessing the teaching of science in one of the State's most prestigious fee-paying schools, Blackrock College, paid tribute to its "excellent facilities".
It currently has six laboratories and a science lecture room - but is undergoing an extensive building programme after which it hopes to avail of eight laboratories. "All of the facilities are in good condition and well stocked with equipment and materials," the report notes.
But while inspectors describe Trinity Comprehensive School in Ballymun as a "very caring place where staff [ are] striving to provide students with a rounded educational experience", they point out that the school sometimes has to offer long-term counselling to students who require more specialised support.
This is because referrals of some students who are in need of assessment or counselling services can be "somewhat problematic and delayed" due to long waiting lists for local psychological services.
CBS New Ross in Wexford is awaiting funding for a refurbishment of its one science laboratory, which dates back the 1970s.
While inspectors are largely complimentary of teaching at De La Salle College, Dundalk, they also highlight the potential for a greater variety in the methods used, with teaching of the subject observed as "traditional in style."
Similar concerns about the style of teaching in some Irish second- level schools are raised elsewhere.
Greater teacher movement among pupils in Coláiste Phadraig CBS in Lucan, Co Dublin is encouraged, while the report on Kilkenny College warns that in some non-examination years there was an "overemphasis on preparation for State examinations."
The report for De La Salle College, Dundalk also notes that the organisation of class time leads some students only to have four mathematics classes a week. Responding, the school's board of management states that every effort is made for mathematics lessons to be scheduled for each school day, something which it says was not acknowledged in the report.
Similarly, inspectors express concern about a drop in the uptake of Higher level Junior cycle science at De la Salle College in Wicklow, and the low level of uptake of physics.
Junior cycle classes have three 45-minute class periods per week - despite syllabus recommendations of four classes a week, it states.
Three lessons a week for Junior cycle French students at Rosemont Park Secondary School in Blackrock, Co Dublin are also below national norms. Measures to address the gender imbalance in the uptake of physics in CBS New Ross, need to be introduced - and the remainder of its Junior cycle science grant spent on essential items of apparatus - something the school's board says it intends to do.