Evaluation role for pupils and parents

PUPILS and parents are to have a stronger input into Department of Education assessments on the work of their schools, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan has announced.

The move to take views beyond those of each school’s parents’ association follows consultations with the National Parents Council-Primary (NPC-P) about ways of improving contributions to whole school evaluations (WSE) carried out by department inspectors.

The Education Minister told the NPC-P annual conference she has approved reforms to the WSE process that will see the introduction of confidential parental and pupil questionnaires.