A national survey of literacy and numeracy standards will be conducted in primary schools in the next school year, the Minister for Education has said.
Mr Martin also indicated in the Dail yesterday that there was no likelihood of primary schoolchildren being charged for using school buses, despite recommendations in a recent report to his Department that all users should pay.
Mr Martin said the Department and the Education Research Centre, St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, would conduct nationwide surveys every five years in English reading for 11-year-old, fifth-class pupils and in mathematics for 10-year-old, fourth-class pupils. The most recent national literacy survey of 11-year-olds had taken place in 1993 and the last mathematics survey of 11- and 12-yearolds had been in 1984, he said.
The Irish National Teachers' Organisation said it had no problem with such surveys. "It's a standard thing that has always been done, usually every five years," a spokesperson said.
But Mr Martin said a new "audit unit" was being set up within the Department which would "conduct more regular surveys of attainment" and "develop national systems of performance of pupils, linking these to international studies of achievement".
On school bus charges, Mr Martin said he had "no plans at all to introduce new types of charges". A report commissioned by the previous minister for education, Ms Niamh Bhreathnach, and published last month, recommended that all families using school transport should pay.