So what it is that HM Inspectors do? For one thing, they will want to take a close look at the courses offered and what standards are achieved by pupils. They also compare teachers’ qualifications with the subjects they teach. All too often teachers qualified in, say, history, are forced to teach maths, where there is a shortage.
Examination results are also looked at carefully, as are the school’s disciplinary arrangements, its accommodation (Do pupils have to sit in the corridors or in mobile classrooms? Are Lavatories outside? Does the roof leak when it rains) and the textbooks and equipment used.
Before leaving the inspected school, HMI will give the head and local authority leader some indication of its findings, so the reports, which take some months to put together and print, do not come as a total surprise.
There are about 30,000 schools, colleges and polytechnics in England. Although there are only about 250 formal inspections a year, visits are far more numerous. Last year done, three out of four secondary schools, one-quarter of all primary and middle schools, almost half of the public schools, 70 percent of all independent schools and nine out of ten further and higher education colleges were visited.
41. According to the passage, the Inspectors always visit schools ______.
A. for the same number of days
B. if a brief inspection suggests something is wrong
C. if parents have complained about them
D. if they hear that the school is doing very well