The Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn T.D., today published the Education and Training Boards Bill which will provide for the establishment of 16 Education and Training Boards (ETBs), replacing the current 33 Vocational Education Committees (VECs).
The Bill provides for the establishment of the newly configured bodies, reforms and modernises their governance provisions, removes outdated terminology and articulates the functions of the boards to better reflect the current and evolving role of VECs.
It will replace the nine existing Vocational Education Acts with one piece of primary legislation.
Commenting on the Bill, the Minister said that: “this legislation will provide the basis for the new local Education and Training Board system.
“It will strengthen locally managed education and enhance the scale of local education and training, and represents a major component of the public service transformation agenda.
“I want to pay tribute to all stakeholders – staff, councillors, managers, parents, teachers and students – who continue to support the work of our VECs and who will be instrumental in ensuring the success of the Education and Training Boards.”
He concluded by saying that significant preparatory work is already underway in advance of the establishment of the new bodies and that he looks forward to the debate on the legislation, which he intends will be fully enacted by the end of the year.
The Education and Training Boards Bill 2012 is available to download on the Oireachtas website (www.oireachtas.ie) and the Department’s website (http://www.education.ie/en/The-Education-System/Legislation/Education-and-Training-Boards-Bill-2012.pdf).
Notes for Editors:
The main provisions of the Bill are:
The establishment of 16 ETBs to replace the existing 33 VECs
The new ETBs are to be composed of 18 members comprising ten local authority representatives, two staff representatives, two parents representative and four members from bodies representing community/business interests
A requirement on ETBs to publish strategy statements (similar to the existing education plans which VECs produce)
The streamlining of the annual planning process
The regulation of committees established by ETBs, including those that act as boards of management of schools operated by an ETB
The creation of a power on the Minister to require an Education and Training Board to establish a school or other education or training institution
The ability of an ETB to operate in the area of another ETB when directed to do so by the Minister
Reform of certain existing human resource provisions, including the ending of the statutory inquiry system used in considering whether or not a VEC member of staff should be removed from office
The Government will be bringing forward a separate piece of legislation to provide for the establishment of the new Further Education and Training Authority to be known as “SOLAS”. It will provide for the dissolution of FÁS and the transfer of their training centres to the newly established education and training boards