merrion street

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn today launched new school self-evaluation guidelines to support schools to evaluate their own work and to set targets to improve teaching and learning.

This will help to achieve the targets set out in the Programme for Government and in the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy, launched by the Minister last year.

The Minister spoke to MerrionStreet.ie about the Guidelines...

Launching the Guidelines, Minister Quinn said,

We need a balanced and credible approach to quality assurance of schools that involves both external inspection and internal school self-evaluation. That is why I am introducing a new system of school self-evaluation for all schools.

Minister Quinn said that all effective organisations are constantly asking themselves searching questions about how well they are doing and how they can improve.

Schools are no different. That is why I want to put school leaders and teachers at the centre of developing a culture of quality and improvement in their schools.

the Minister said.

 The Minister announced formally that all schools would be required to introduce self-evaluation in the school year 2012-13 and build capacity to evaluate their own work in the years ahead.

Over the next three years, schools are expected to evaluate and report on their work in literacy, numeracy and one other area. The process will involve schools in gathering information from a range of sources, analysing the data and identifying the strengths and areas for development and improvement.

The School Self-Evaluation Guidelines issued today provide comprehensive information about the school self-evaluation process.

A range of other supports has also been developed to assist schools in their self-evaluation. These include

seminars for school principals delivered by the Department’s Professional Development Service for Teachers, and advisory visits to schools by the Inspectorate.

A dedicated website,

been developed to support the implementation of school self-evaluation. These contain online supports including evaluation tools, presentations and short video clips.