Speech by Ruairí Quinn, T.D. Minister for Education & Skills at the JMB Conference Galway
May 2, 2014
Introduction
Thank you for the invitation to be here with you in Galway this week.
At your Conference in Killarney last year, I discussed Literacy and Numeracy, JCSA, SSE, Transitions and how each of these initiatives complement and support each other.
I also discussed the need for coherence in how different models of patronage can engage coherently with the state.
I was delighted to be here for Dr. Diarmuid Martin’s address last night, and to see a continuing debate within your organisation on the future of Catholic education in Ireland.
In the context of your ongoing internal debate on enhancing catholic schooling in Ireland, I don’t propose to deal with that topic further today.
The three Teacher Union Conferences last week provided me with a welcome opportunity.
They can be challenging occasions, but they allowed me to outline in great detail many of the reforms which are underway in education.
These reforms can be summarised under three ideas:
• Firstly, the idea of supporting inclusion and diversity.
• Secondly, the idea of improving quality and accountability.
• And thirdly, the idea of creating opportunities for our citizens.
I don’t propose to repeat all that I said last week to you here today.
But I do wish to briefly discuss our moves to support inclusion and diversity, and to improve quality and accountability in our schools.
Before doing so, I want to spend a few moments outlining the work we are doing to ensure that the right infrastructure is in place to support our schools.
School buildings
The first key element of putting the right infrastructure in place, is continuing to fund the five-year school building programme.
Over 5 years, we are spending over €2 billion on school building projects.
To ensure that 275 schools, across every county of Ireland, receive new buildings, or major extensions.
As you well know, these projects are urgently required to accommodate the rapidly growing number of children in our schools.
But they are also necessary to lift schools, which have been consigned to prefabs for decades in some instances, into modern new facilities.
In addition to these major projects, we have rolled out two phases of a prefab replacement scheme since taking office.
This year, we have also secured funding for a new round of the Summer Works Scheme.
Already, round 1 has seen €36m allocated to 386 schools across the country.
This funding will allow for gas, electrical and mechanical works to be carried out, keeping 98,000 children safe and warm in our schools.
Round 2 of that scheme will be announced tomorrow , and will see more than €30m allocated to toilet improvements, and to roof replacements.
All of these building works are welcome.
But more than that – they are essential elements of ensuring the right infrastructure is in place to support our schools.
As we continue to plan our school buildings into the future, I am determined to cement the move we have made – away from promising school buildings to everyone but never delivering, to giving schools security and certainty over when school building projects will proceed.
If having the right buildings in place is important, so too is supporting school leaders to allow them to focus on teaching and learning to the greatest possible extent.
Admin burden
Last year, at this Conference, I expressed my desire to work with the JMB to see how the administrative burden on schools could be reduced.
Officials have examined the data demands on all schools – primary and post-primary.
The Department has also engaged with school principals, to capture the full range of demands and pressures that arise on a daily basis in schools.
The ongoing development of the Department’s IT infrastructure connecting with schools, involves building a national learner database covering primary and post-primary students.
The continued expansion and enhancement of this database should help address the issue of minimising duplication in data requests.
It is clear however, that the pressures on the time of school leaders, cannot be resolved by computer system or data collection changes alone.
Administration in all its forms: financial, human resources, health and safety, legal, and so on, are a feature of modern life across all institutions and organisations, including schools.
In my view, the issue in Irish secondary schools is not that there are administrative tasks to be done, but rather the extent to which that burden falls almost singularly on the school principal.
That is why I was particularly pleased to receive the report produced by JMB and ACCS on the management structures needed.
Middle management
Unlike in other parts of the public sector, there has been no moratorium on the recruitment of teachers over recent years.
Indeed, with the rapid demographic growth we are experiencing, funding has been found to recruit an additional 1400 teachers, this year alone.
That said, you are particularly aware of the moratorium that exists on the filling of middle-management posts in schools.
The moratorium of necessity has been a blunt instrument across the public service.
It has succeeded in helping reduce the overall public pay bill.
But I’m very conscious that in terms of middle management posts, it has led to inequities between schools, and significant management challenges within schools.
That said, I have been very clear that we will never return to the previous system of providing middle-management support to schools,
Where over 50% of all teachers held a management allowance, but the principal still carried an undue burden.
In relation to selection, progress was made in recent years, to move towards a meritocratic system of selection, and not one simply based on length of service.
But we need a much broader reimagining of middle-management structures.
In that context, I was particularly pleased to receive the report produced by JMB and ACCS on this topic.
That document outlines a new approach to allowing boards of management to decide the appropriate management roles that need to be filled.
It also could provide teachers with a clearer careerstructure.
We’ll be discussing that document with you in more detail over the coming months.
Having discussed the administrative burden on schools already, I want to ask you to further consider the degree to which a restoration of middle management posts in schools should be our priority?
Instead, should we be looking at the provision of administrative support to schools that is not provided by a teacher?
Would it be preferable for schools to be provided with support services funding, to employ a person dedicated to dealing with administration?
These are questions rather than solutions, but questions I look forward to progressing with your leadership over the coming months.
Building on your joint report, I think it is important that the Department, working with the second level management bodies and NAPD, should seek to reach a consensus on the options that might best support school leadership.
Casualisation
Given that today is the first of May, it would be remiss of me to conclude any discussion on school staffing without raising the issue of most concern to second-level unions – the dangers of an increasing casualisation of the teaching profession.
I realise that the JMB is engaging constructively and positively with the expert group on casualisation.
I know that you share with us a desire to maximise job security for young teachers, while doing this in a way that meets the legitimate needs of schools.
I look forward to pursuing this shared agenda, and bringing it to a conclusion in the coming months, in the long-term interest of our education system.
Education and Training Boards
Having discussed the burdens on school leaders, I think it’s important to touch upon the future role of the local Education and Training Boards.
I understand that there is an anxiety in the secondary school sector about any growth in the remit of the ETBs.
However, it’s clear that we have to find a way of supporting schools through regional structures, and not just by funding individual schools.
The Education and Training Boards Act sets out that ETBs, as part of their role, should “enter into arrangements with, and provide support services to, education or training providers”.
The Act goes on to set out some of the support services envisaged.
These include HR support, project management and technical support – three areas where I have heard regularly from principals that they need greater support.
There will be other ways of supporting schools at times – the establishment of a Schools Procurement Unit in the JMB is an example of a different way of supporting all schools.
The Financial Support Services Unit in the JMB is another such example.
But the ETBs must, I believe, take on more support services over time, for all schools in their areas.
Clearly, when planning for such supports to be provided, we need to ensure there is an equitable level of support available to ETB and non-ETB schools.
But that is not an insurmountable challenge.
And freeing a school principal from managing a building project, preparing a contract of employment, or providing technical support to a teacher, would considerably free up that principal to lead the teaching and learning in their school.
Supporting inclusion and diversity
School buildings, easing the administrative burden, making middle management work, and using bodies such as ETBs to provide support to schools – all of these are important, but all are designed simply to put the right infrastructure in place.
Our ambitions must build upon that infrastructure.
As I have said elsewhere, the first idea I am committed to pursuing in education, is the idea of supporting inclusion and diversity in our schools.
Admission to Schools Bill
As you are aware, I hope to publish and enact the Admission to Schools Bill in this session.
The Oireachtas Committee has completed its deliberations, and the detailed drafting work is now underway.
Many of the issues raised by the report of the Oireachtas Committee concern the proposed regulations to accompany this Bill.
In particular, the use of waiting lists, and other criteria for prioritising in case of oversubscription received detailed analysis.
I am reflecting on those matters, but will only make a final judgement after the legislation has been passed in full.
The committee report raised the need to consider the retention of Section 29 appeals or some form of external appeal mechanism.
I still plan to remove admission as it is currently provided for in Section 29, but I am considering what alternative approaches may be possible.
At the same time, I am conscious that there is a desire to retain all decision making on these matters at school level, to avoid infringing on school autonomy.
As this matter is debated through the Houses of the Oireachtas, I will reflect further upon them.
At this juncture however, I would be particularly interested in hearing the views of the JMB, on how best to balance school autonomy on one hand, and access to an external statutory appeal mechanism that would impose decisions on schools on the other.
Parents’ and Students’ Charter
Ensuring that all schools admit students in a fair and transparent manner is essential for supporting inclusion and diversity in our schools.
So too, is giving genuine voice to parents and students.
Our constitution recognises the role of the family as “the primary and natural educator of the child”.
The Education Act of 1998 sought to put the involvement of parents at the heart of our education system.
And this has been realised in many schools.
Parents’ Associations have flourished across the country.
And the two National Parents’ Councils now play a meaningful role in the development of education policies.
But in truth, we have not done enough to underpin the involvement of parents in all aspects of education.
Section 28 of the Act allows for procedures to be implemented to support the expression of grievances by parents.
Unfortunately, it has not been possible to give meaningful effect to that section of the Act.
But more troubling is that Section 28 does not set out principles on how schools should engage positively with parents, so that grievances are minimised.
Providing such principles in legislation would be a recognition, that parents must have positive rights in relation to the operation of school.
Here and in other countries, we have seen the development of charters in public and private sector organisations in recent years.
These charters set out what those in receipt of services can expect, and how those delivering the services account to the public for what they are providing.
It is my intention to amend section 28 of the Education Act, within the Admission to Schools Bill.
This will provide the legislative underpinning for the Parents’ and Students’ Charter.
Ultimately, this should reduce the need for invoking the complaints and grievances procedures.
But more importantly, it will help us see a change in culture.
Teachers, parents and students – all as equal partners in the operation of our schools.
Equal partners working to set aside the differences which separate our children from each other.
JCSA
As I mentioned at the outset, supporting inclusion and diversity is just one of the ideas which underpin the reforms underway in education.
Before concluding, I want to touch upon another one of those ideas – that of improving quality and accountability.
At second-level, a major aspect of our approach to improving quality and accountability is the introduction of the JCSA.
I want to take this opportunity to welcome the immensely constructive manner in which the JMB has engaged on these proposals.
In January, I was happy to establish the National Working Group for the Junior Cycle.
Your joint submission with ACCS and ETBI on the “Resources required by Schools for the successful implementation of the Junior Cycle Framework” has been very informative.
Its content in relation to, for example, the assessment and external supports required is now part of our considerations.
I listen to issues raised by all stakeholders.
In response to your concerns, I agreed to slow down the phasing in of the reform programme, and to provide schools with an additional day each year, for whole school planning related to JCSA.
I also want to welcome the fact that the JMB, along with other management groups, have been working with our JCT team, to assist in developing CPD programmes for school leaders.
I regret that this work is currently in abeyance but look forward to this partnership resuming in the near future.
Constructive dialogue is the key to successful implementation of the JCSA.
Conclusion
I’ve kept my remarks brief today, as I want to allow for a detailed Q&A session, for which I am accompanied by Seán Ó Foghlú, Martin Hanevy and Pat Burke.
But I have tried to provide you with relevant detail – on putting the right infrastructure in place to support our schools, on supporting inclusion and diversity, and on improving quality and accountability.
There are many other issues on which I could have focussed, but which we might pick up during the session.
The roll-out of high-speed broadband to all of your schools by September has significant implications into the future, which I’m eager to hear views on.
The future of smaller secondary schools is also an issue that must be aired at some stage, given the difficulties faced by these schools in offering a broad curriculum.
School self-evaluation, transitions into and out of second-level, and the new allocation model for resource teachers being proposed by the NCSE – all of these are issues which I hope we will discuss today, and over the coming months.
Thank you once again for the invitation to be here in Galway with you today.
