Written question asked by Alasdair McDonnell (Social Democratic & Labour Party) on Friday, 14 July 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 18 July 2006. It was answered by Maria Eagle (Labour) on Thursday, 20 July 2006 on behalf of the Northern Ireland Office.

Language Support

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many inspections of language support services were carried out by the Department of Education Inspectorate in Northern Ireland in each of the last four academic years; and what the findings were of each such inspection.

Answer: The inspections that have been carried out by the Education and Training Inspectorate during the last four years have focused on the quality of language support for learners in schools and colleges of further education, rather than on such bodies as may have a remit to support schools and colleges.ETI has published a report ““The Provision for English for Speakers of Other Languages and Modern Languages in Further Education”” (April-June 2005). This is available at www.deni.gov.uk under Education and Training Inspectorate, surveys. The quality of learning and teaching and the standards and outcomes achieved by the learners in schools, in relation to the provision for English as an additional language, have also been inspected recently. This report will be available from the Department's website, referred to above, early in the 2006-07 academic year.

Secondary information