Dept. Education
The Department of Education Northern Ireland.
The Department of Education funds the Education and Library Boards. There are five Education and Library Boards, namely, Belfast, North Eastern, South Eastern, Southern, and Western.
The budgets allocated to the Department do not include funding delegated to schools under the local management of schools arrangements and additional funding provided for specific initiatives, funding for youth, and capital expenditure. The budgets relate to centrally funded services, including special education needs and school transport.
Despite attempts, this, however, was not possible as of early 2014 to secure political agreement to establish the Education and Skills Authority. After reform of local government structures, the program to establish the ESA was withdrawn, and alternative legislation proposed to establish a single Board to replace the five ELBs.
The Education Act 2014 establishes the education authority. This is parallel with the establishment of 11 councils on 1 April 2015. Education administration is compatible with the local governmental reform.
The legislation makes provision for the status, membership, tenure of office, remuneration of allowances of members and employees of the education authority. It makes provision for finance accounts, reporting, and return.
Provision is made for the transfer of the assets and liabilities and staff of the Education and Library Boards to the education authority. The Department’s primary function is to promote education of persons in Northern Ireland and ensure the effective implementation of educational policy. This covers pre-primary, primary, post-primary, and special education needs and the youth service. The Department is accountable to the Minister to the Assembly for the delivery of its statutory functions and effective use of public funds.
Its overarching goals are to raise standards for all and close the performance gap, increasing access and equality. Its enabling goals reflect three priority areas through which the Department works to achieve the overarching goals. They are developing the education workforce, improving the learning environment, and transforming governance and management of education.
The Education and Training Inspectorate leads inspections of early years schools, further education and training, youth in initial teacher education, learning and skills in prisons, and DCAL funded provisions.
The Departmental Board operates a collegiate forum under the leadership of the permanent secretary to manage the running of the Department. It operates under a wider corporate governance function.
In addition to the Education and Training Inspectorate, there are eight heads of divisions, who deal with specific areas of work. They are organized into a number of branches and themes. They include five in respect of the Library Boards, the Council in Catholic Maintained Schools, the Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examination and Assessment; Staff Commission for the Education and Library Boards; the Youth Council for Northern Ireland.
A number of statutory and voluntary groups and organizations work closely with the Department and contribute to the administration of education including the General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland, the National Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education, and Comhairle na Gaelscolaiochta.
The General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland is a statutory independent body for the teaching profession. It is dedicated to enhancing the status of teaching and promoting high standards of professional conduct and practice.
Teachers must register with the Council, maintain a Register of Teachers. The Council publishes professional competence requirements for teachers. This includes initial teacher education, induction, early professional development and continuing professional development, collaborative practice, and school improvement.
The Council is the self-regulatory professional body for teachers. It determines who may be admitted as a member.
The Corporate Plan for Education 2012 up to 2015 outlines strategic directions for the Department and the wider education service. It sets out key priorities and objectives. Annual business plans are developed annually by the Department’s arms-length body.
Underpinning the process are school development plans, which schools prepare on a three-yearly basis. They set out key priorities for the period based on the Department’s priorities for education.
The Strategic Planning and Policy Development Forum brings together trade unions, employers, and secular support bodies to work with the Department and shape, influence policy development, and strategic planning at the initial stages.
Introduced in 2007-2008, the revised curriculum now applies to all 12-year-olds in compulsory education. It provides for minimum content, assessment arrangements, and other skills.
The entitlement framework is the post-14 curriculum, which places the needs of pupils first. It seeks to provide access for pupils to a broad and balanced curriculum to enable them to reach their full potential, no matter which school they attend and where they live.
It is to guarantee pupils access to a minimum number of courses at key stage 4 and post-16, of which one-third must be general and one-third applied. The Department specifies the number of courses and designates courses as general or applied.
Schools are encouraged to make use of up-to-date labor market information and take note of the Department’s priority areas in offering access to a coherent and economically relevant choice of courses for pupils.
The Department publishes numerous circulars in relation to practice and other matters affecting schools. The circulars have been published online for the last 15 years.
The Department produces a range of education statistics. The statistics and research team collects statistics relating to schools, pupils, and teachers to meet the statistical needs of the Department in forming policy development, implementation, and evaluation. There is an annual school census, summary of annual examination results, and School Leavers Survey.
Information is gathered in relation to pupil-teacher ratios, teacher numbers, pupil attendance, school performance, school meals, and pupil suspensions and expulsions.
The Education and Training Inspectorate makes available access to findings of inspections. Inspections of given schools and organizations are available publicly.
Under the open enrolment arrangements, there is a requirement that all schools must have net pupils up to an approved admissions number and within an overall enrollment number. The numbers are determined by the Department in consultation with the Library Boards, now the authority, and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools and Board of Governors at schools. They are based on the physical capacity of the schools.
Parents may express a preference for schools, but this is not absolute and is constrained by the physical capacity of schools.
The schools must publish an admission criteria. If there are more applicants than places, popular schools are not allowed to expand if there is surplus space elsewhere.
The Department publishes health and safety requirements for schools. It provides precedent health and safety risk assessments and advice on the effectiveness of safety policy.
There is a protocol for the selection of major capital work. The Department publishes the protocol for major work projects dealing with procedures for the selection of projects to proceed to planning.
The Department publishes school designing standards. They give advice and guidance on the planning and design of school buildings.
Under the local management of schools arrangements, Boards of Governors have a delegated budget to meet ongoing running costs. This enables them to plan and use resources to the maximum effect in accordance with the school’s needs and priorities. The Common Funding Scheme provides delegated funding to all grant-aided schools other than special needs schools. Controlled and maintained schools receive funding through the Education and Library Board. Voluntary grammar schools and grant-maintained integrated schools receive funding through the Department.
The Department provides a range of support to schools.
The Youth Service is comprised of a voluntary and statutory sector. It is under the control of the Education Board. And consists of a number of youth clubs and outdoor education centers. Approximately 145,000 young persons are registered participants in the Youth Service.