The Department of Education should hand over to other bodies some its most important functions, including examinations, special education, third-level administration and teacher-training, an internal report has recommended.
The report, by Mr Sean Cromien, former secretary-general of the Department of Finance, is one of the most critical overviews of the education system and of the Department in recent years.
Mr Cromien says that the Department is so "overwhelmed with detailed day-to-day work" that long-term strategic thinking is neglected. "There is a feeling at every level that something is seriously amiss with the structure of the Department", he says.
Many officials in the Department do not have time to assess whether what they are doing is "being done properly, or indeed whether it is worth doing at all", the report says. "There is a vagueness, caused by the absence of clear structures, about where in the Department policy is formulated and whose responsibility it is to formulate it."
The report, drawn up at the behest of the Department's secretary-general, Mr John Dennehy, says that the best way to reform the Department is to reduce its overwhelming workload, for example by getting a "specialist body" to run the exam system.
"The running of examinations is not core work of the Civil Service and does not fit easily into it", the report says. It points out that independent bodies have responsibility for examinations in other countries and says that this should be an objective here.
Another reason for the heavy workload is that the Department has little local presence, Mr Cromien says. He suggests a network of local offices to offer people education services.
In relation to special needs, Mr Cromien says senior officials should not be dealing with individual cases, but should be concentrating on "the core issue of policy development". An "alternative structure" should be set up to deal with individual cases, preferably a national council for special needs.
The report questions whether the school transport scheme should be operated by the Department. "It would seem one which would be suitable for contracting out in full", it says.
While universities are the responsibility of the Higher Education Authority, there is no equivalent for the Institutes of Technology, and the Department is still "deeply involved" in their operation. The solution is to give greater independence to these institutions and hand over operational matters to the HEA, the report says.
The payment of third-level grants should be handled by the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs, according to Mr Cromien.
The report also says: "The question arises why the Department needs to be so closely involved with in-career teacher education". The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment might take responsibility for this, it is suggested, possibly funding the colleges which undertake it.
Mr Cromien lists a range of criticisms of the Department but says that it still has many strengths. "It has always insisted on maintaining the highest educational standards, a policy which has contributed to the esteem in which Irish education is widely held."