Standardised testing must help improve each student’s potential

THE provision of more information for parents has been a central theme of much that will mark Mary Hanafin’s profile as Education Minister when she retires or moves on to bigger and better things politically.

Since taking office in 2004, she has taken quite a different line to her predecessor Noel Dempsey who, although intent on change for the better of students, parents and taxpayers, was often accused of “flying kites”.

The announcement of standardised testing was greeted with disdain by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation when first mooted by him three years ago. They cried foul about the publication of league tables and the fact that this work was already being done by teachers the length and breadth of the country.