School-based assessments of junior cycle students will be valued by teachers and parents more than exams over time, the country’s top schools inspector predicts.

All three groups representing second-level schools say they support delays to some assessment by teachers of their junior cycle students — to help resolve an ongoing dispute.

Students can be assessed by their own teachers in a replacement of the Junior Certificate in a way that is fair and leads to improved learning, the country’s chief schools inspector says.

Schools think issue dealt with but students disagree

Department of Education inspectors will carry out evaluations on Teagasc and other agricultural colleges from next year, under a recently-signed agreement.

The results in PISA 2012 science tests have been hailed as testament to the long-term returns from Ireland’s investment in teacher training and curriculum reform in the subject.

Irish students have been ranked among the brightest in the world, according to new figures from the OECD.

A much-hyped new maths syllabus has not yet led to improved student standards or widespread changes in teaching methods, research has found.

Almost 70 schools have been put under Department of Education supervision because of poor standards over the last five years.

The replacement of the Junior Certificate by schools assessing their own students will bring major benefits, says the head of the organisation leading the changes.

Third-level leaders have given assurances that the standards of students taking up teacher training courses remain high.

The number of training places for primary teachers should be reduced because Government cuts mean there are not enough jobs in schools, the head of their union has claimed.

The Department of Education’s chief inspector has suggested looking at restricting the numbers going into teaching as a possible way of keeping up standards in the profession.

Teaching at almost one-in-seven secondary schools is weak, inspectors have found in evaluations over the past three years.

THE dramatic fall in Irish teenagers’ scores on international literacy tests could partly be down to more students switching off before reaching the end, an analysis of their performance revealed.

GREATER investment in education here should be matched with more autonomy for schools and less focus on reading and maths, an expert who helped turn Finland’s education system into one of the world’s best has suggested.

ONE of our comfort blankets during the decade of hubris was the belief that we had a premier grade education system producing an endless stream of world-class graduates.

IRELAND’s ambitions to be seen as a smart economy have suffered a serious setback as the reading skills of teenagers here have fallen more than in any other developed country in the last decade.

Education Correspondent Niall Murray says Mary Coughlan is a firm believer that overhauling teacher training rather than cutting class sizes is key to reversing falling literacy and numeracy standards.

ONE-in-seven English and maths classes for primary pupils are unsatisfactory, random inspections by the Department of Education have found.

TEACHER unions should get down to serious talks on the Croke Park deal and end disruption in schools, a second-level principals’ leader has said.

MORE THAN €200 million in funding given to schools to help disadvantaged pupils has failed to deliver progress on reading and maths among the students, the Department of Education has found.