The end of ESA
Peter Cheney analyses the decision that closes the last chapter of the Review of Public Administration.
Almost nine years after the Education and Skills Authority (ESA) was first proposed, the Executive has agreed to abandon the plan and replace it with a single education board for Northern Ireland. The two proposals, at first glance, appear similar but the new board will lack the wide-ranging remit that made the ESA proposal so controversial among teachers and politicians.
The board will replace the Belfast, Northern, Southern, South Eastern and Western education and library boards which have been in place since 1986.
Commenting on the change of policy, Education Minister John O’Dowd said: “This is the best way of providing an education administration that is compatible with the changes to district councils that take full effect on 1 April 2015. It will provide stability in our education system and ensure consistency in services.”
The board is expected to include representatives from the councils, the main churches and the teaching profession, along with a number of members directly appointed by the Minister.
ESA was first proposed by direct rule Minister Angela Smith in November 2005. It would have incorporated the five education and library boards, the Youth Service and the front-line support functions provided by the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools.
O’Dowd’s decision follows years of a long-running series of disputes between the DUP and Sinn Féin, during which £16 million was spent on preparations for ESA. Staff numbers at the existing boards were cut from 2010 onwards in anticipation that they would soon join the new authority.
The parties were divided over the rights of transferors, the autonomy of grammar schools and the status of a new sectoral body for controlled schools. Trust also declined over time.
Under the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986, the Department of Education can amend the name or area of any board. The Executive and the Assembly’s Education Committee have agreed to the legislative change, which will have to be enacted by early 2015.
The board’s headquarters is yet to be decided but is likely to make use of existing offices in Belfast, Armagh, Ballymena, Dundonald and Omagh. As a first priority, it is likely to focus on improving support services which have been badly affected by the staffing cuts.
The Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment will remain independent, along with the existing sectoral bodies i.e. the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools, the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education, and Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta. The department still intends to set up a controlled schools sectoral body with an input from the transferors.
Ulster Teachers’ Union General Secretary Avril Hall Callaghan condemned the outcome as a political failure. The £16 million could have “supported countless new teaching jobs [and] improved school buildings and resources”. She blamed unionist politicians for blocking the ESA “on the basis that it might not sit comfortably with the grammar school lobby.” The DUP maintains that it has defended the interests of the controlled sector throughout the process.
The education and library boards have not actually been responsible for public libraries since April 2009 but their names have remained unchanged since then. In a further complication, the South Eastern Education and Library Board has been run by commissioners since July 2006 when it voted against budget cuts.
