The Irish Vocational Education Association, IVEA, is the representative body for the 33 current vocational education committees, VECs, which are statutory authorities soon to be amalgamated into 16 education and training boards and which is one of the main functions of the Education and Training Boards Bill 2011, under discussion today.
The Bill, together with the proposed legislation to establish SOLAS, set out the role of the education training boards in the delivery of education and training. These will profoundly change the Irish educational landscape through the establishment of a middle tier education and training authority structure.
The proposed legislation consolidates the existing vocational education Acts into one single Act. We welcome this consolidation of legislation and the modernisation of the legislative provisions which will govern the education training boards. In particular, we welcome the referral of the heads of the Bill, in the first instance, to this sub-committee, thus affording IVEA an opportunity to input our views at an early stage.
IVEA has proposed a number of amendments to the Bill, and these recommendations are appended to the document submitted to the committee. The main IVEA recommendations deal with provisions in the draft legislation concerning the composition of the new education and training boards; co-operation between education and training boards; the chief executive officer; and a number of other recommendations for the purposes of increasing clarity and certainty in the legislation.
To deal with the composition of the education and training boards, currently, the heads of the Bill provide for an 18-member education and training board with ten persons nominated by the local authority, two persons nominated by parent bodies, two persons nominated by staff and four persons nominated by community representatives. Over the years, working at the heart of local communities, with strong community voices represented on their committees, VECs have been delivering a wide range of education, training and related services to those communities. IVEA has long argued that the great strength of VECs has been this close association with their local communities and that this is the basis of their efficiency and effectiveness as local statutory education authorities.
With the proposals in this new legislation to amalgamate most of the current VECs into two and three county education training boards, this community and local voice is much diluted, if not fully lost. In order to maintain or restore, as far as possible, a strong local representation, IVEA seeks that the provisions with regard to membership on the education and training boards be somewhat revised. We are not asking for very much but we are asking for an increase. We are recommending that an education and training board should have 21 - rather than 18 - members if it is established through the amalgamation of two VECs and that it should have 24 members if it is established through the amalgamation of three VECs. The IVEA is recommending that the revised legislation should provide for 12 local authority representatives, or 15 in a three-county configuration, as well as two parent representatives, two staff representatives and five community representatives. We recommend that the additional community representative should reflect the enlarged adult education population, which will come to us when the FÁS training centres are transferred to us.
Under this heading, the IVEA is also making recommendations for consideration concerning representation from community national schools, the timing of elections and representation from county, city and town councils. As representation from town councils is being dropped in the new legislation, the IVEA is recommending that specific provision should be made for town councils to be represented among the people elected by the local authority. In other words, when the local authority is electing its delegates, it should consider members of town councils rather than dropping them completely. Our submission deals with the basis for designating the number of members elected, gender balance and how casual vacancies on education and training boards should be treated.
Section 31 relates to co-operation with education and training boards. In the case of sections 31(3), 31(7) and 31(9), the IVEA feels the Minister's legal capacity to direct a representational body should be amended. My association is a representational body - it is not a statutory body. The wording in the appended document has been suggested and is subject to approval. It ensures the Minister's directions are given to the VECs and not to the IVEA. If the Minister makes a request to the IVEA, that would be one way around the problem.
The IVEA welcomes the human resource aspect of this legislation. For the first time, VEC staff will have access to the State's appeals mechanisms, such as the Employment Appeals Tribunal, which will bring them into line with other public service staff. That is to be welcomed. The IVEA, as an employers' body, is proposing certain amendments with the purpose of bringing greater clarity and certainty to the provisions which address matters relating to the chief executive officers of education and training boards. We know they are in line with what the chief executive officers are saying. In this respect, the IVEA supports the chief executive officers. We recommend the adoption of those amendments.
In order to provide more clarity and certainty, we have made recommendations with about the title of a statement of strategy and the requirement for a member of a board of management to reside within the locality of the board's school, centre or other education and training setting. Among the functions provided in the new legislation, it is envisaged that education and training boards will provide supports and services to other education providers in their functional areas. The IVEA welcomes this aspect of the legislation as an acknowledgement of the VECs' extensive local knowledge and experience of working in and with local communities. We think it is critically important that the resources and expertise within each VEC area are made available to other education providers, including other schools within the catchment area at primary and secondary levels, if they so desire.
Following the enactment of this proposed legislation, education and training boards will be established with clear functions, roles and responsibilities. The legislation that will establish SOLAS and the further education and training sector will set out the roles and functions of education and training boards, especially in the areas of education and training. Both pieces of legislation aim to modernise Irish educational structures. They envisage that the former VECs, to be known as education and training boards, will be central to that process. This is the most profound change and most fundamental restructuring that has happened in the education sector for many decades, even if it is not recognised as such. We have been calling for the establishment of a further education and training sector for a decade or so. We are pleased that it is now being brought into the mainstream. As well as having primary, secondary and third levels, we will now have a further education and training sector. This is about much more than the abolition of FÁS - it is about mainstreaming further education and training as a distinct element of the education sector.
The IVEA will work with the Minister and the Department to ensure this transformation process happens as quickly as possible. Foresight, flexibility and the commitment of all the relevant partners will be required if the targets of a reformed education and training sector are to be met successfully. The VECs have long risen to the social and educational challenges Ireland has faced over the years. The education and training boards and the IVEA, which will be the boards' official representative body, will live up to that proud tradition. We will rise to meet these new challenges with vision and purpose.