'More To Be Done' On NI Education

Education in Northern Ireland continues to improve, but challenges remain, according to the Chief Inspector of the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI).

Noelle Buick presented her biennial report for the period 2012-14 at the Belfast Metropolitan College today.

"More and more children are leaving school each year with five good GCSEs, including English and mathematics, giving them the choice of entering training, employment or continuing with academic studies," she said. "It is imperative that this trend continues and education professionals in every sector will be at the forefront of working towards this goal."

Commenting on pastoral care, Mrs Buick said: "Areas such as pastoral care remain a significant strength with schools and providers getting better at identifying and supporting learners’ social, behavioural and emotional issues. There is a strong correlation between high quality pastoral care and good learner achievements."

She added: "The ETI observed over 11,000 lessons and training sessions and found the quality of learning and teaching to be mainly good or better. This is something our educators and trainers should be rightly proud of.

"However, Northern Ireland’s education and training system has unacceptable variations and persistent shortcomings which need to be addressed urgently if we are to improve our provision and outcomes from average to truly world-class."

Mrs Buick said it was "unacceptable" that pupils on free school meals continue to produce lower educational outcomes.

She added: "Leadership and management is improving across most of the phases but there is still room for further enhancement, particularly in 34% of post-primary schools inspected. Leadership and management were evaluated as good or better in 80% of pre-schools, 85% of primary schools and in 90% of special schools inspected."

Education Minister John O'Dowd said: "I welcome Noelle Buick’s report and very much value the scrutiny and feedback that ETI provides. This report deserves careful scrutiny and it will assist in implementing current education policy and in informing thinking on new policy in the future.

"There is a consistent downward trend in the number of young people leaving school each year without reaching the crucial standard five good GCSEs, including English and maths. I want to see this trend continue, but I recognise there are still too many young people in this position and that there is more work to be done by all of us in education."

(IT/CD)