A MAJORITY of disadvantaged schools surveyed by the Department of Education failed to show any improvement in numeracy standards, a teaching conference was told last night.
Dr Harold Hislop, the department’s chief inspector, said progress had been better in literacy where 11 of the 18 schools in the study had achieved significant gains in literacy achievement.
In the study, the department looked at the school’s action plan, tracked the way its targets were set and then looked at how the school monitored and evaluated its own outcomes. Dr Hislop also revealed that the department had completed over 400 unannounced or incidental inspections last year.
Last year, a report based on these unannounced inspections found learning outcomes in almost 15 per cent of English and maths primary classes were unsatisfactory. The inspectors also said teacher preparation in almost one-quarter of these classes was not up to a proper standard. The department described the findings as surprising and worrying.
Addressing the annual conference of the Irish Primary Principals’ Network, Dr Hislop said he was committed to maintaining the same level of incidental visits in 2011. “In addition, we plan to use this type of visit to a greater extent to follow up with schools to find out how they are managing to implement recommendations for improvement.”
The conference was also told how recent cuts are targeting the disadvantaged and will be counter-productive. The cuts have seen reductions in the number of teachers working with Travellers, fewer co-ordinators for disadvantaged schools in rural areas and a smaller pool of English language teachers for immigrants.
The network’s president Pat Goff accused the Government of “kicking out the props and collapsing the scaffolding that has supported disadvantaged schools and their communities in recent years”.
He said the Government had little understanding of the role schools play in counteracting disadvantage. He said an embargo on the recruitment of additional special needs assistants has been implemented, regardless of how many additional children with special needs enter the system.
“The care needs of a child have not changed. The supports needed to include a child in a mainstream class have not changed. What has changed is the Government’s U-turn on its commitment to the most vulnerable in our society.”