PARENTS are to receive information on the rating of their children's school, ranked from "weak" to "very good", under an inspection system proposed by the Minister for Education.
The results of this Whole School Inspection will be given to school principals, teachers and parent members of a school's board of management, a Department spokesman said yesterday.
Ms Breathnach said her draft proposals, criticised by teacher unions but praised by the National Parents' Council, would be circulated to all schools for their comments.
WSI shifts the focus of inspection from the teacher to the school as a unit. It proposes to rate schools on a four point scale.
The best schools would be rated "very good", denoting major strengths. "Good" rating would indicate that strengths outweighed weakness. "Fair would be the minimum acceptable with significant improvement possible. And "weak" would indicate major weaknesses.
The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland said yesterday, however, the proposal was crude and did not take into account the varying circumstances in schools.
The president of the Teachers' Union of Ireland, Mr Tony Deffely, rejected the concept of such ratings: "The TUI already has in operation agreed procedures for the inspection of teachers. Any changes to existing arrangements require negotiation and agreement.
"We reject in particular crude, simplistic measures of school effectiveness."
Ms Breathnach announced her plans for WSI in December. In line with proposals made in last year's White Paper on Education, inspection will focus on the development of staff, the quality of school buildings and the provision for meeting individual student needs. School self evaluation will form an important part of the process.
In March these plans were explained at a meeting of the education partners. But the proposals were not published as unions were worried they might influence the ballots being conducted on the Government's pay offer.
The unions have yet to respond formally to the Minister's proposals.
