THE DEPARTMENT of Education has established a special unit to deal with problem schools, known as the School Improvement Group.
The group has addressed problems in some 50 primary and second-level schools since it was establishment in 2008. The department is refusing to name the schools in question.
Details of the school improvement group are revealed in a briefing document prepared by officials in March for Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn.
Broadly, the group works with schools where difficulties and weaknesses have been identified by the department’s inspectors.
The group is made up of members of the inspectorate and officials from the department’s schools division.
The briefing note says it co-ordinates the department’s actions in following up on the recommendations made in inspection reports.
“While responsibility for the implementation of improvements suggested in inspection reports lies with the board of management, principal and staff of each school, in a very small number of cases the weaknesses in the school are so significant that intervention is required to assist the school improvement agenda.”
The briefing note also says that – apart from the inspection process – particular difficulties in some schools come to the department’s attention from time to time.
The note continues: “The School Improvement Group can assess how the school can be encouraged and supported to resolve issues.
“Actions initiated by the group are intended to ensure that the school’s patron, management and staff work to improve the quality of provision for students and access external supports as appropriate.”
The department says the group meets on a regular basis to engage “with schools with significant weaknesses when necessary”.
Since February 2006, school inspection reports have been published on the department’s website. Although they were initially criticised as being too bland, they have become increasingly robust.
In recent reports, inspectors strongly criticised the running of a well-known girls’ secondary school – Our Lady’s Bower, Athlone, Co Westmeath – under its former principal.
Other schools to face robust criticism from inspectors include the Muslim school in Cabra, Dublin.
However, it is not clear if the issues raised in any of these schools were addressed by the School Improvement Group.
The programme for government backs more information for parents on schools. It says a new system of self-evaluation will be introduced, requiring all schools to evaluate their own performance year-on-year and to publish information across a wide range of criteria. It also says that parents should have access to more information when choosing a school.