Warning on 'education meltdown'

Education boards due to be scrapped in six weeks have warned of chaos due to the assembly's failure to pass the law creating the body to replace them.

The Education and Skills Authority was due to take over the functions of the education and library boards and other bodies like the CCMS on 1 January.

The DUP has refused to back the new authority, and the deadlock is unlikely to be broken by the end of the year.

Despite this, education bosses warned no contingency plans are in place.

Their concerns were echoed by Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) chief executive Donal Flanagan, who has advised his staff to "disengage" from assisting in the creation of the Education and Skills Authority (ESA).

The DUP is opposed to the ESA because it is unhappy with the treatment of controlled schools, attended mostly by Protestant children.

Uncertainty

It is planned that ESA will be the future employer for all school staff.

The single body is to replace the five education and library boards in Northern Ireland and four other bodies including the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) and the CCMS.

Education Minister Caitriona Ruane of Sinn Fein is expected to outline her plans at an Association of Education and Library Boards conference on Friday, according to a party colleague.

Sinn Fein education spokesman John O'Dowd said he remained convinced "that we can and will have a smooth transition".

DUP education spokesman Mervyn Storey said his party was not using the issue as a bartering tool to secure other concessions.

"I am determined to ensure the smooth transition from the education and library boards to a new structure, but if that new structure does not command respect or deliver for education then that will not be put in place," he said.

My primary concern is to deliver services to schools Donal Flanagan CCMS chief executive

The chief officers of the education and library boards have complained strongly to the Department of Education about the ongoing uncertainty.

All employers have been told not to appoint new staff, and the chief executive of the Belfast board, David Cargo, has told the department his board has been blighted by serious staffing issues.

By the beginning of January, the education board members will have been stood down so there will be no-one to take decisions on issues such as teaching appointments and contracts.

They said morale was very low, with staff not knowing if they would still have jobs on 1 January.

'Negative energy'

CCMS chief executive Donal Flanagan has written to the Department of Education warning that he could not allow the continued undermining of staff morale to continue.

"My primary concern is to deliver services to schools," he told the BBC.

"In the absence of a definitive date, in the context that I don't at this point of time have a plan that enables me to merge my organisation into ESA, and also that a lot of negative energy is being focused on this at the expense of service delivery, it was a perfectly logical and legitimate decision."

Mr Flanagan said he did not have any confidence that the required legislation could go through the assembly in time for the changeover.

"If I read the standing orders of the assembly correctly, it's now impossible to put through the bill before 31 December.

"The assembly would have to set aside the standing orders, which could still happen, but my understanding of due process is that it is almost impossible."

ESA was conceived as part of the Review of Public Administration, which was designed to streamline bureaucracy.

It was originally supposed to come into operation in April 2008, but the date was put back to January 2010 amid complaints by politicians and trade unions that the timescale set by direct rule ministers was not achievable.

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