School literacy targets attacked

Many schools are falling short of literacy targets

The reduction of numeracy and literacy targets by the Department of Education in Northern Ireland schools has been attacked by an assembly watchdog committee.

The department was criticised for reducing targets for primary school children in the province when they are being raised in England and Wales.

A report by the Public Accounts Committee said it was concerned the goalposts were "simply being moved to conceal a failure to achieve the literacy and numeracy targets expected of schools by the community".

The report - Indicators of Educational Performance and Provision - said it "cannot be satisfactory" that the expectation for the educational achievement of school children in Northern Ireland should be lower than that for the rest of the United Kingdom.

The department needs to establish credible and realistic targets and stick to them

Billy Bell
PAC chairman

Commenting on the comparison with England and Wales, the report said the department had "lost credibility" when it came to setting targets in relation to literacy and numeracy among the province's schoolchildren.

"This is worrying because such a substantial number of schoolchildren are failing to meet minimum accepted standards," it added.

Committee chairman Billy Bell said the department needed to "establish credible and realistic targets and to stick to them".

Accountability

Mr Bell added that on educational achievement, members were disturbed to find that while many pupils were achieving extremely good literacy and numeracy standards at Key Stages 2 and 3, there were still too many schools which had substantial ground to make up before departmental targets were achieved.

The committee, meanwhile, welcomed the department's plan to annually publish key statistics on education performance targets and value for money within each of the education and library boards.

Billy Bell: "Too many schools have substantial ground to make up"

Mr Bell said the committee recognised there was "a wealth of information within the education sector which was complex and not readily accessible either to educationalists or the general public".

"Through the production and publication of such information, the department can identify changes in the level of performance of the boards.

"It can also compare performance between the boards, which will not only satisfy the demands of accountability, but should also help to enable good practice and assist in rasing standards."

He said the committee considered it would be helpful if information was presented on a sectoral basis, showing for example, performances in the controlled, maintained and integrated sectors.

Ready access to education performance indicators was "essential" if the assembly and the community were to hold the education boards accountable for their performance.

"Moreover, with the Northern Ireland Executive stressing education as one of its priorities, it is essential that the boards look carefully at how well they and their schools are performing in order to meet the challenges of the future," added Mr Bell.