Purpose: to allow vocational education committees to set up primary schools.
If the Bill is passed, the state will take a more active role in setting up primary schools, just as it has done at secondary level. In addition, the number of vocational education committees (VEC’s) is being reduced from 33 to 16 in order to cut local government spending, therefore the 16 VEC’s will be “stronger ad better placed to provide support to schools.”
Its current role is confined to helping patrons, primarily from the Catholic Church, to set them up. Problems can arise where a patron is unwilling or unable to establish a primary school, despite parental demand.
A vocational education committee (VEC) may establish or maintain a primary school, or become the patron or joint patron of a recognised primary school. All these actions depend on consent or a direction from the Minister of Education and Skills.
These ‘community national schools’ have been piloted in two locations in Dublin since September 2008 and another three locations in Counties Dublin, Kildare and Meath since this September. A ‘multi-belief’ programme of religious education will be provided with specific teaching for the main faiths of children.
Any school for which this application is made must meet the normal criteria for a recognised school, outlined in the Education Act 1998. The Bill adds one extra criterion to this list i.e. the Minister must be satisfied that “adequate resources” are available and that recognition represents “an efficient and effective use of such resources.”
The governance and accounting for schools under VEC patronage will be the same way as other primary schools. A board of management will therefore be appointed through the normal procedure for a primary school and will not be a VEC sub-committee. The VEC, though, will provide a chair and one other board member.
A number of miscellaneous amendments are also made.
Under the 1998 Act, the Minister was tasked with providing speech therapy services for schoolchildren. However, this role is now undertaken by the HSE. The Bill amends the law to recognise this situation and services will be unaffected.
Educational disadvantage is defined as “the impediments to education arising from social or economic disadvantage which prevent students from deriving appropriate benefit from education in schools.”
The Educational Disadvantage Committee is to be abolished, in keeping with the 2008 Budget’s rationalisation of agencies. The committee has not existed since 2005 in any case. In its place, the department will consult with educational organisations on the subject and also implement the relevant action plan.
Persons who are not registered teachers could be employed to teach, to meet the “urgent, temporary or occasional staffing needs of schools”.
The Minister will draw up regulations to cover these situations, which can be caused by geographic isolation, population increases or the allocation of additional teaching posts.
Presenting the Bill, Minister Mary Coughlan said her core objective was “to maintain the focus on providing the best education for all our children in a time of increasing diversity of demand and challenging economic conditions.”
As the Bill is yet to conclude its second stage, it was not possible to indicate when it will be enacted.
First stage: 24 September
Second stage: 13 October onwards
