I am pleased to introduce the Vocational Education (Amendment) Bill, 2000, to this House. I will take a few moments to describe an outline of some of the key provisions of the Bill. In doing so, it is worth reflecting on the historic importance the VEC sector has played in the education of generations of Irish students.
In 1924, the then Minister for Education requested a committee on technical education to report to him on the provision of technical education. It was the recommendations of this report, published in 1927, that would lead in 1930 to the first Vocational Education Act. Our vocational education sector, therefore, can be counted among the longest standing sectors in the Irish State, predating even the Constitution and, by extension, this House. In that time, the sector has played a pivotal role in the organisation, management and provision of second level education to Irish students. In recent years vocational education committees have gone beyond this role and are now engaged in the provision of wider educational services, including the critically important and developing area of adult education.
I will touch briefly on some of the key aspects of the legislation today but we will have an opportunity to discuss the details in more depth on Committee Stage. The need for reforming legislation for the VEC sector has been evident for some time. At the time of the publication of the Green Paper on education in 1992, the wide ranging role of the VEC sector, covering vocational education and training, second level education, youth work and adult education was highlighted. It was recognised that the VEC structure continued to be a core feature of Irish education. However, at the same time it was recognised that there was a clear need to ensure that the sector was equipped to recognise the many and dramatic changes in the Irish education sector which have occurred in recent years. Successive policy documents confirmed this stance and set the scene for the current reform the Minister proposes to undertake with this legislation.
At the core of the Minister's proposals lie the students. Today's students face an increasingly competitive and complex environment. We are all familiar with the development of the knowledge based society and the rise of a globalised econ omy. We know from experience that these changes offer many opportunities. We have benefited significantly from the development of the hi-tech industry in Ireland, both through the involvement of foreign corporations and the development of our own indigenous sector in this area. We have seen the rewards and prospects that this offers our students. We must also recognise that to seize these opportunities, our students will need to have access to a world class education system.
The new VEC legislation cannot in itself provide for world class education. At root, the educational experience is something unique to each individual student. It will be shaped by a range of factors, including the knowledge and expertise of their teachers, the support of their family, their peers and each student's own sense of ambition. No legislation of itself can seek to deal with the complexities of such issues. However, what this legislation can and must do is create the legal environment to give vocational education committees the means to plan their own operation so as to ensure that, through their schools and their other centres for education, they can deploy their resources in a way that is sensitive to the needs of their students and their communities. It also sets out to provide vocational education committees, as is proper for autonomous bodies, with the flexibility to enable them to respond to uncertainty and the authority to put in place effective and appropriate educational services for the needs of those they serve.
To achieve these aims, the Minister proposes a number of changes to four key areas of the current VEC legislation. This legislation will provide for a revision of the functions of vocational education committees, for more inclusive membership in vocational education committees, for more effective reporting arrangements within vocational education committees and between vocational education committees and the Minister and for an updated financial structure for the operation of the vocational education committees.
The functions of vocational education committees have remained largely unchanged since the founding legislation of 1930. However, legislation developed at a time when school attendance was compulsory only up to 14 years of age and when a general second level education was the privilege of a relatively small fraction of the population is inadequate today. The authors of the legislation identified a relatively narrow role for those schools set up under the auspices of vocational education committees. The role of these schools would be to provide "continuation education", which would supplement existing elementary education, and "technical education", which would assist in the development of the trade and craft skills required by local industry.
The modern reality of vocational education committees is radically different. VEC schools are now an integral part of our second level edu cation system, providing schooling for almost 100,000 second level students – nearly 30% of all second level students. VEC centres are actively engaged in the provision of a wide range of adult education services, from basic literacy to certificate courses. Indeed, the Government White Paper on adult education earmarked the sector as the home for the development of a resourced and comprehensive adult education service.
In the Minister's view, it is now appropriate and timely that the VEC legislation should reflect the changed reality of VEC operation. The existing functions of the vocational education committees set out in the 1930 Act will be retained. However, section 9 of this Bill sets out a more complete description of the functions of vocational education committees, capturing the reality of their role in Irish education today. The section provides that each VEC will now have a general responsibility to continually review, plan and co-ordinate the provision of education in its area. These changes, together with other changes to the way in which vocational education committees will plan their activities, particularly the education plan and service plan, are designed to change the basis for the operation of vocational education committees. The Minister's intention in these changes is to ensure that vocational education committees are in a position to structure their activities to meet the educational needs of the students they serve.
The Minister is proposing certain important changes to the manner in which the VEC will be constituted. The 1930 Act provided that the membership of the VEC would be drawn from the corresponding local authority. Of these members, not fewer than six had to be persons who were not members of the local authority but drawn from the wider community of the local business or commercial fields. It is not the Minister's intention to diminish the role of the local authority in the operation of the VEC. Local authorities have been centrally involved with the VEC sector since its establishment. Their contribution has been one of the strengths of the VEC sector.
The Bill before the House today proposes certain other changes to the model of representation. The Minister proposes to provide for statutory recognition for the partners in education to become formally involved in vocational education committees. Accordingly, the Bill provides that in addition to local authority representation, there will now be a statutory right of representation on committees for both parents of students attending vocational education committees and the staff employed by vocational education committees, including teachers. The Bill also provides that further categories of persons will also be considered for membership of each VEC, including students, representatives of voluntary bodies and local business interests.
Following the debate in the Dáil, the Minister introduced amendments to extend these categories so as to ensure that consideration will also be given to classes of staff who may not be represented following the election of staff members to the VEC. This might include representatives of the administrative staff of a VEC. The Minister has also made provision for representatives of religious trustees who may be trustees of schools which are operated under the auspices of a VEC. Typically, these schools would be the result of a merger between a VEC school and a local voluntary secondary school. These broad categories will allow vocational education committees to continue to involve a breadth of interests from each local community in the operation of the VEC.
The Education Act, 1998, has already given the principle of partnership a statutory footing in the education system. That Act has given parents a new range of statutory responsibilities and rights, ranging from the recognition of local parents' associations in each primary and post-primary school to their formal involvement in the preparation of new models for boards of management at national level. Parents have long sought that this principle of recognition should also extend to the VEC sector. The Minister fully subscribes to that view and is happy to make this provision in this Bill. The parents of students attending VEC schools will, therefore, be able to elect two representatives to become full members of each VEC.
The Minister also considers it appropriate that the staff of the VEC should also be entitled to membership of the committee. The single most important attribute of any organisation is its staff and it is appropriate that their involvement should be formalised by distinct provision in the membership of the VEC. Therefore, in the same way as parents, the staff of each VEC will be entitled to elect two representatives to sit on the VEC. The Minister has made provision that where a class of staff proves not to be represented in this formula, consideration must be given to including such staff as a member of the four extra persons to be nominated to the VEC.
In relation to the changes the Minister is proposing to reform the planning structures within vocational education committees, the Minister considers it to be desirable to take account of the changes which have developed in other spheres of local government in recent years. The health boards have, for example, undertaken a new method for the organisation of their work through the use of an annual service plan. Local authorities have adopted a somewhat more long-term framework for their operation, which allows for the identification of the needs of their local communities and the preparation of plans to meet those needs.
The Minister considers it essential that vocational education committees should have the tools to allow them to undertake their work in a targeted and focused manner. Vocational education committees today have responsibility for a wide range of educational needs, ranging from the new entrant to second level education and students undertaking post-leaving certificate courses to obtain specific job relevant skills to the adult learner who is undertaking further study in any one of a range of areas. These needs are met through numerous schools and centres for education, with services provided daily by teachers and administrative staff.
The role of the VEC is not limited to the present; it is equally important to anticipate the needs of tomorrow's students. In the Minister's view the techniques of annual and medium-term planning offer vocational education committees excellent opportunities to approach these challenges in a structured way. Indeed, most vocational education committees have built such principles into their planning process. This legislation will place these principles on a legal basis.
Section 25 of the Bill will require that each VEC prepare a service plan. The legislation provides that it will be prepared each year immediately after the allocation of resources by the Minister for Education and Science, an allocation which will be made after the budget. The plan will set out the income the VEC expects to receive that year and how it proposes to allocate that expenditure. The service plan will also set out broad categories of service which each VEC will provide and the estimated expenditure it will incur in providing that service. The service plan thus provides a complete picture of how a VEC intends to carry out its functions in the coming year. The Bill further provides that each VEC will at the end of the year prepare a report on how it has carried out the objectives it has set for itself in the service plan the previous year. This will allow for full accountability in the operation of the VEC. Its operations and activities will be open to outside scrutiny. This accountability will give the local community a greater understanding of the role and activities of the VEC. Where those activities might be enhanced or redirected, they will be able to so inform the VEC, thus creating a virtuous cycle of enhanced services.
At a longer-term level, section 30 of the Bill requires vocational education committees to create an education plan. The function of this plan will be to set out a broad vision of the future activity of the VEC. It is intended that this plan will comprehend the next five years of operation of the VEC. It allows the committee an opportunity to focus its attention on the overall development of its services, a focus which might on occasion be sacrificed to the needs of the instant. Issues such as demographics, population shifts, changing economic circumstances or patterns of employment can feed into the thinking of the committee to inform it in its plans for the future development of the VEC.
It will be the role of the chief executive officer to prepare a draft education plan at the direction of the VEC. In so doing, the chief executive officer will consult such persons or organisations as the VEC itself considers appropriate. It will be the final responsibility of the VEC to consider the plan as prepared by the chief executive officer, to make such amendments as it sees fit and to formally adopt the final plan. In each subsequent year thereafter the chief executive officer shall prepare a report for the VEC on the operation of the plan. This will provide a useful opportunity for the VEC to consider the operation of the VEC in the context of the identified needs and objectives of the VEC. The VEC may also at this stage take the opportunity to amend the plan in light of unanticipated events.
The Minister has also made provision in this Bill for the introduction of the reserved executive model into the VEC sector. This model, which is in widespread use throughout the other spheres of local government, provides for a division of the policy and executive responsibilities of each VEC. The policy functions, which are known as reserved functions, are assigned as the responsibility of the committee of the VEC. Thus the preparation of both the service plan and the education plan will fall within the scope of the committee. While the officials of the VEC may assist in the preparation or compilation of information, the formal adoption of these plans will be the responsibility of the committee alone.
The Bill assigns executive functions to the chief executive officer. In bringing forward this reserved executive model the Minister is conscious of its proven success throughout local government. It acknowledges the role which should be accorded to the elected and appointed members of the vocational education committees. It is proper that these representatives are charged with the role and responsibility for the overall direction of the VEC. The officials of the organisation are in their turn responsible for the effective implementation of those policies and are accountable to the representatives for failure to do so.
I want to point out some of the more recent amendments made to this Bill in the other House which also affect the issue of reporting arrangements. In line with the recent trends towards enhanced accountability of public bodies, particularly to the Oireachtas, the Minister has made provision to ensure the right of any committee of either House of the Oireachtas to be able to summon the chief executive officer of a VEC to such committee to allow for that committee to consider such aspects of the operation of the VEC as it deems appropriate. Vocational education committees will now have a statutory duty to comply with such requests. In many ways this merely provides a legislative basis for common practice among vocational education committees in recent years. For example, it has long been the practice for vocational education committees to attend the Committee of Public Accounts to respond to queries on their financial operation. Sections 17 to 19 will provide a legislative basis for the maintenance of this practice and its exten sion to include other committees of the Oireachtas.
A further element of the Bill provides for the regularisation of the position of County Dublin VEC. The legal basis for that VEC is currently governed in a somewhat ad hoc manner by the Blanchardstown Institute of Technology legislation. This arose due to a redesign of the local authority borders in the Dublin area, which has led to some departure from the traditional local authority-VEC area alignment. County Dublin VEC now extends to cover three local authority areas. The Regional Technical Colleges (Amendment) Act, 1999, made an interim provision for these three local authorities to elect the members of that VEC. It has been the view of the Minister for some time that it is necessary to ensure that this provision is replaced and the activities of County Dublin VEC, one of the biggest VEC schemes in the country, placed on a more secure footing. Indeed the Regional Technical Colleges (Amendment) Act requires this as the provision in that law expires this year.
Accordingly, this Bill provides for such a basis for the operation of the County Dublin VEC. The Bill also provides that the Minister may, by order, following consultation with the groups involved, provide for a realignment of the Dún Laoghaire VEC border, to become conterminous with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. The Minister is aware that there has been some discontinuity in this area since the recent reforms to local government. However, he is also conscious of the need to consult fully with all the affected parties before taking any decisions in this area. Accordingly, the Minister has provided that any such order must be preceded by the appropriate and proper consultation to ensure that the ultimate outcome will reflect the needs and wishes of the affected communities.
I am pleased to bring this Bill before this House today. The provisions of this Bill set out the most noteworthy reforms of the VEC sector since its establishment in 1930. Both the Minister and I believe that these reforms will significantly enhance the operation of the VEC sector and, in so doing, enhance the quality of education being provided through this sector. In making his proposals, the Minister is conscious of the need to ensure that the essential strengths of the VEC sector – local involvement and devolved decision-making – are retained. The Minister is confident that they have not only been retained, but enhanced. The inclusion of parents and staff in a formal manner on vocational education committees recognises the important role of both these partners in education. The new procedures for the nomination of four further members to the VEC from the wider community sector will ensure that vocational education committees can continue to draw upon the talents and resources of their local communities.
In terms of the internal operation of vocational education committees, this Bill has significantly revised the old financial and reporting structures set out in the 1930 VEC legislation. The Minister believes that these changes are necessary to allow vocational education committees to plan and structure their work in today's environment. I look forward to a positive and constructive debate on this Bill and a chance to consider the details of the Bill on Committee Stage. I commend the Bill to the House.