Mr al Martin: signalled move to scrap regional boards The grounds for students to appeal school decisions will be reduced in the new Education Bill, to be published shortly, which is expected to be given final approval by the Cabinet tomorrow.
The main difference from the Bill introduced by the last government will be this Government's decision to scrap the idea of regional education boards, a move signalled by the Minister for Education, Mr Martin, before he came into office.
Otherwise, large sections of the Bill remain unchanged from the draft legislation proposed by Mr Martin's predecessor, Ms Niamh Bhreathnach, last January.
Several of that Bill's more controversial elements have either been dropped or watered down. The latter is the case with the section on appeal procedures.
The new Bill will allow appeals only against expulsions, suspensions and non-admissions, whereas Ms Breathnach's legislation allowed appeal tribunals attached to the proposed regional boards to decide what else they could hear. Teacher behaviour, for example, cannot be the subject of appeals under the new legislation.
Under the new Bill, the tribunals will consist of a Department of Education inspector, a lawyer, and someone appointed by the Minister after consultation with management and parent bodies and teacher unions.
Another change will see the disappearance of the clause giving the Minister the power to compel schools to set up a particular board of management structure, and to withdraw funding from a school if it failed to do so.
There will be statutory recognition of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, which was left out of the last government's Bill. There will also be legislative recognition of the professional status of teachers, which the teachers' unions complained was absent from the earlier Bill. The role of the school principal will also be defined.
Under the earlier legislation, schools were required to produce an annual report. This will become optional under the new Bill. It will also recognise, in its general principles, that education is not just schools-based but also involves lifelong learning.