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Friday, 20 November 2009

Ruane admits education body delay

Education minister Caitriona Ruane has admitted that a new single education body is unlikely to be in place by the start of next year because of political deadlock.

The Education and Skills Authority (ESA) was due to take over from the education and library boards on January 1 but interim measures will be introduced, the Minister added.

She said it was neither practical nor desirable to keep the boards and said savings of £21m have not yet been achieved.

"Savings that could have gone straight to frontline services in schools. Those savings will now have to be found in other areas and this will be a huge challenge," she said.

The heads of the education and library boards have warned of the uncertainty causing chaos because of the political stand off between Sinn Fein and the DUP.

Ms Ruane added: "I will however in the coming days, announce interim plans to ensure a smooth transition between the current structures and ESA, in the absence of political goodwill in achieving the Executive decision to have ESA in place by 1 January 2010.

"A reconstitution of the boards as currently constructed is not an option. It is neither practical nor in line with stated Executive policy for radical reform of the education system.

"However, it is imperative that the work already under way to reform the administration of education continues without further delay."

The ESA was planned as part of the Review of Public Administration (RPA) which was designed to streamline bureaucracy.

The DUP has refused to back the new authority because it is unhappy with the treatment of controlled mainly Protestant schools.

DUP MLA Mervyn Storey accused the minister of misleading the public.

"The DUP is perfectly content to debate this bill in the Assembly. The problem does lies with a minister who seems fearful of bringing her own bill to the floor of the Assembly," he said.

"One would almost believe that this minister has no confidence in her own bill. What does that say about her ability to do her job?"

It is planned that the ESA will be the single employer of all school staff in Northern Ireland.

It will replace the five education and library boards and four other bodies including the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS).

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3 Comments

At 21:29 on 20 November 2009, doirecormac wrote:

First the 11+ and now this - what an operation ! At least if this doesn't go ahead it may save the 125 civil service jobs that will be lost in Derry as is currently proposed.

At 18:42 on 20 November 2009, Another Fed Up DE Employee wrote:

The DE staff including myself received our letters informing us of our transfer to ESA at 11:30 Thursday morning. Friday - ESA is postponed- confirming what everyone knew. The Minister has no respect whatsoever from all staffing levels in the Department. In fact she has become a figure of fun. The woman is simply out of her depth. This is not an anti-SF argument. Martin McGuinness was generally regarded as a good Minister and it is realised that if she goes she will be replaced by another SF Minister. In the name of the children of Northern Ireland Mrs Ruane go. And go now. And to the Sinn Fein Party - stop being blinkered and blindly defending her. You all know it - put the poor woman out of her misery. For EVERYONES sake.

At 16:02 on 20 November 2009, Fed up DE employee wrote:

Perhaps if the Minister scrapped her new DE Policy on Irish Language she could save a small fortune. It's absolutely scandalous the money that's wasted in DE tanslating documents into Irish. It doesn't happen in "the South" so why should it be allowed to happen in Northern Ireland.