Should the Department of Education itself be subjected to an external review by experts?

That was the question posed in the House of Keys on Tuesday after an MHK challenged whether the department received independent and expert scrutiny.

The island’s schools are all required to undergo a self-evaluation and review process, which is then subject to external validation, but Julie Edge (Onchan) said the same level of scrutiny was not applied to the department.

However, Education Minister Graham Cregeen insisted there was plenty of scrutiny from Tynwald, via the social affairs and policy review committee.

Ms Edge said the last external inspection of the department was in 2002. She pointed out some areas that now came under the Department of Education, Sport and Culture’s remit, were subjected to external scrutiny.

’You have external validation of the NSC, you have it for the schools, you have it for special needs, I believe,’ she said. ’But you do not seem to wish to have it for the headquarters.

’I appreciate that the Tynwald committee can scrutinise, but that is not an external validation done by a professional body experienced to do that.’

She added: ’I am not asking for an Ofsted inspection of our schools. Our schools are currently externally validated and that is why we do have successful young children.

’It is about making sure that his department is operating adequately in an education setting. They are instilling for the schools that they have to have external validation, but for some reason the department does not.’

Former teacher Jason Moorhouse (Arbory, Castletown and Malew) also queried why it had been so long since an external review.

’The last Ofsted and HM Inspectorate investigation of the department took place at the start of this century,’ he said.

’Is it time that an external review actually was carried out in terms of the department’s operations regarding schools?’

Mr Cregeen said Tynwald committees had the power to bring in external experts as required.

He pointed out that education in the Isle of Man was run by the central government, as opposed to a local education authority.

DESC member Lawrie Hooper said the policy review committees of Tynwald were the ’proper place’ for independent external scrutiny of government departments.

Chief Minister Howard Quayle accused Ms Edge of one minute ’standing up in other debates saying that we need to cut the number of civil servants, we need to cut our costs, government is top heavy, we are spending too much money - and the next minute is wanting a review of the reviewers’.

He added: ’If we were to review this, where do we stop?’