Benchmarking: another attempt to introduce market-oriented policies into Irish second-level education?

Teachers in Ireland fear that benchmarking in the context of the present review of pay and conditions for all public service workers camouflages a shift of concern away from the development of the individual student to concern for the quality of the educational process provided by schools. A recent dispute between secondary teachers and the Irish government may have had more to do with protecting Irish education from the perceived ill effects on teaching and learning manifest in England and Wales. This article traces the role of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in promoting managerialist policies and the rejection of those policies in Ireland through the National Education Convention and the Education Act (1998). Most teachers regard the benchmarking process as being too focused on value for money and investing in education for economic ends. The recently enacted Teaching Council may become an important forum for teachers to counter the shift to market-oriented policies for Irish education.