We in Ireland are too quick to congratulate ourselves on the excellence of our education system. Indeed, the Minister for Education appears reluctant even to engage in the emerging debate about quality in education. The truth is that we have steadfastly refused to shine a light into the darker corners where some nasty surprises lurk. Some hard realities loom out of the shadows:

Reading scores at age 14 place Ireland in the bottom fifth of 24 OECD countries

Three times as many children have severe reading difficulties in deprived city areas as in the rest of the country

More than one in six school-leavers cannot carry out even the most basic literacy tasks

It is not an accident that people are largely unaware of these very real problems. It is a direct consequence of the fact that the Government collects no information about some of the most crucial aspects of our education. For example, the Department of Education collects no information:

about literacy and numeracy in schools

about truancy and suspensions/expulsions from school

about the special needs of children which require appropriate resources.

There is no serious body of research in Ireland on the effectiveness of different policy initiatives to tackle educational disadvantage. No real assessment is available on the designation of schools as disadvantaged - even though 1,600 teachers are employed in them - and on the allocation of remedial teachers. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that policy-makers are fumbling along in the dark instead of basing proposals on hard analysis.

Debate in Ireland about education almost invariably centres on inputs, not on outcomes - on pupil/teacher ratios, on capitation, on ex-quota staffing rather than on literacy and numeracy, on pupil progress, on course drop-out. This focus inevitably overlooks questions about quality. The effectiveness with which resources are deployed is just as important as the quantity.

Quality improvement is the great challenge for every modern organisation - instead of just repeating what it knows, it seeks to become a learning organisation. This involves systematic analysis of what an organisation does, benchmarking against others and rearranging work so that the organisation operates as a more cohesive team to improve results. This process seeks to engage people in a new way: encouraging innovation, team working and taking responsibility for improvement.

The education system has even more reason to put quality improvement procedures in place. However, it has been surprisingly slow to do so. Indeed, they are stoutly resisted in some quarters where you would expect an impetus for reform. We shall never get to grips with educational disadvantage unless we are willing to face up honestly to why some children find enormous obstacles both within and outside the school.

Despite its limitations, a look at inputs is nonetheless quite revealing of what have been Government priorities over the years. It shows:

that spending on a third-level student is more than three-and-a-half times that on a primary pupil, in stark contrast to the rest of the EU.

that 54,000 primary pupils are in classes of over 35 which the Department itself describes as the "maximum".

that one in three of those in need of remedial teaching gets none at primary level and this rises to two out of three at second level.

that the entire amount devoted to measures to help tackle educational disadvantage represents less than 5 per cent of the education budget at first and second level.

Official efforts to tackle educational disadvantage have been disjointed and applied in an ad hoc way when resources were available rather than as part of a coherent vision. It is not then surprising to find that education has been singularly unsuccessful in levelling life's chances in Ireland. In fact, it reinforces inequality. Pupils from low-income families do substantially worse at each of the significant stages in the education system compared to the children of top earners. They are:

16 times more likely to leave school without sitting the Leaving Certificate

four times more likely to get insufficient points to go to third level

three times less likely to get to third level given sufficient points.

The declaration by this Government that primary education would get priority has not happened. It has been third level which has manifestly obtained preference. Indeed, this year the scope for resource improvement at primary level was halved because the number of teachers released by falling numbers halved. The Minister's present approach, far from giving primary education priority, will see resource for initiative in the sector progressively dry up as the decline of pupil numbers comes to an end.

The voices which get attention in the education debate are rarely the voices of parents and never the voices of those whose children are likely to drop out early. The voices which dominate the debate are those of the providers.

This is not to say that they do not have a very valid case to make. However, no one can expect a union, whose job is to win better conditions for its members, to be able to tell the whole story.

The resolution of contentious issues in the Education Bill shows just how unequal the "partnership" in education is. Parents lost out in relation to the complaint procedures, to a role in pilot school evaluation projects, to the appointment of school boards, and to the right to an annual report on their school.

The quality of education is fast becoming the dominant factor in the success of nations. Modern workers must be capable of continuous adaptation. The ability to work in teams and embrace change are the most prized assets of an employee.

The successful school must recognise these realities. It must seek to transform itself to meet the needs of its pupils. This challenge is greatest for children who experience difficulty in relating successfully to the education system. We simply cannot continue to allow one in five pupils to drop out early.

Our highly-centralised Department of Education metes out resources on the basis of systematic rules. It is not capable of the bold response to the particular problems of a school in a deprived urban area. This must change.

The Department must make an act of faith in the capacity of the local community to devise models to confront its needs. Resources must be freed up for schools who forge new forms of partnership to tackle educational disadvantage.

In many ways a wide gulf separates the early school-leaver from the conventional school line. Surveys show that none of them regrets the decision to leave because their experience was almost invariably negative.

You cannot cross any gulf in small steps, least of all this one; it takes bold strides. This is particularly apt to the challenge of tackling educational disadvantage. There is no sign of such a spirit in this Government.

Richard Bruton is the Fine Gael spokesman on Education and author of the party's policy paper Not Just Another Brick in the Wall. He is due to host a consultative forum on edu- cational disadvantage in Dublin today.