Concerned that new exam results won’t be published

Your recent front page report on the state of Irish education in respect of international performance made very interesting comparisons.

I was especially struck with the measure of dissatisfaction on the part of Irish parents regarding teacher-provided information on their children’s academic progress.

As recently as last week I attended a National Parents Council meeting for primary school parents on the subject of Mr Quinn’s New Framework for Junior Cycle, where I learned that from 2014, second year secondary students are to take standardised tests in English Reading and Mathematics and in 2016, these will be extended to Science.

Amazingly, under Minister Quinn’s proposals, students and parents will not be told the results and school statistics will not be published. All of this is in total contrast with what happens in Northern Ireland and England where students are given their national scores and where students outperform Irish students.

At the meeting I was concerned at aspects of the presentation of a schools’ inspector and his adverse comments about setting students according to their ability in subjects, a practice which is widespread in countries that outperform us.

Alan Whelan

Beaufort

Co Kerry