Towards a Better Future

Towards a Better Future: A Review of the Irish School System
influence in the re-shaping of the school system in recent years. Leadership and staffing of the
Inspectorate also underwent significant change, with a new recruiting policy shaped by its
professional concerns (Coolahan, 2009, pp. 260-290). Among key internal structures were the Senior
Management Group (SMG), the Evaluation Support and Research Unit (ESRU) and the Staff
Development Unit (SDU). Improved inspector induction processes were introduced and more
extensive forms of continuing professional development (CPD) were made available, reflective of the
Chief Inspector’s comment of the Inspectorate as ‘a learning organisation’.
Among key early indicators of the changing
pattern of work and communication of the
Inspectorate in the early years of this century
were the following: In 1999, the School
Development Planning Unit was set up, which
in subsequent years, would guide schools in
implementing the school development planning
policy. In 2002, the Inspectorate published its
Professional Code of Practice on Evaluating and
Reporting, making known to interested parties
how it approached its work. In 2002, it also
published Fifty Reports: What Inspectors Say, to
inform on the viewpoints of the Inspectorate on
“
The changed role of the
Inspectorate coincided with a
major reform of the then
Department of Education and
Science (DES), following the
Deloitte & Touche, 1999, and the
Cromien, 2000, reports.
”
practice evaluated. A publication to help schools in self-evaluation, Looking at Our Schools, was
published in 2003.
The first new form of inspection, Whole-School Evaluation (WSE), took place in primary schools
in 2003 and in post-primary schools in 2004. The first Chief Inspector’s Report, for 2001-04, was
published in 2005 (DES, 2005c). In 2006, a notable event took place with the first Inspectors’
Reports on the evaluation of schools published on the DES website. The Chief Inspector’s Report for
2008 is a good example of the changed culture of inspection that had been brought about in these
years. It provides an overview of the range and scale of the various forms of inspection then operative
and includes focussed comments on the strengths and weaknesses of aspects of the school system. It
clearly emphasises the close engagement now operating by the Inspectorate with the work of
teachers, school communities, and provision outside the mainstream system (DES, 2009). It provides
incisive comment on what is working well in schools, what needs to be improved, and what needs
to be done into the future. Overall, the Report is reflective of a significant shift in direction for much
of the work of the Inspectorate in which evaluation and mentoring of educational quality, on the
ground, is centre stage, extensive feedback is given to practitioners, policy advice is collated, and
reflection occurs on emerging trends. It is also significant to note that, between 2002 and 2008, the
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