When it comes to Vocational Education Committees it's a case of when they're good they're very, very good and when they're bad they're, well, bad. It's a sad fact that, although many of the State's 33 VECs are doing excellent, wide-ranging and innovative work, a number of committees have managed to bring the sector into disrepute over the past few years.
Back in 1994, the then Minister for Education, Michael Smith, threatened to dissolve the Co Westmeath VEC unless it operated within the limits of its financial scheme. The VEC had suffered a financial deficit over a number of years which amounted to almost half a million pounds in 1993 and had secured significant overdrafts without ministerial approval.
A report of the Comptroller and Auditor General highlighted financial irregularities, overstaffing, poor judgement and a disregard for instructions from the Department on the part of the Westmeath VEC in 1994. In 1996, meanwhile, the Comptroller and Auditor General criticised unauthorised expenditure by Co Longford VEC.
Add to all of this, charges of political interference in VEC appointments and you have a recipe for considerable public disenchantment with the sector, particularly among that part of the public which has little connection with it.
The VECs have been under siege over the past number of years, according to Michael Moriarty, general secretary of the Irish Vocational Education Association (IVEA), the VECs' representative body. Observers, however, argue that they brought a lot of it on themselves.
Public criticism of some VECs by the Comptroller and Auditor General has paid dividends, according to a source. Fiscal rectitude is now the order of the day. The VECs are now "stringently accountable" and it's unlikely that they will be found guilty of irregularities again.
The VECs felt threatened when Niamh Bhreathnach's Education Bill opted for regional education boards (REBs). An early move by Bhreathnach's successor, Micheal Martin, was to scrap the REBs in his revised Bill. The Minister for Education and Science is currently reviewing the 1930 VEC Act and the VECs hope that he will "ringfence" their position.
The VECs have been around for over 60 years but, despite this and the fact that over a quarter of our second-level students are educated in VEC-run schools, many people know relatively little about VECs and how they operate.
The Vocational Education Act 1930 set up the VECs to provide continuation schools for the practical training of young people aged 14 to 16 years and technical schools for over-16-year-olds engaged in apprenticeships. However, just as Ireland has changed over the years, so too has the work of the VECs. Until the Sixties, they were the main agencies for apprenticeship education and training when it was taken over by AnCO (now FAS). The former RTCs, which have since become autonomous, were established in the late Sixties under the aegis of the VECs.
Along with the regular VEC schools, which now offer a wide range of courses up to Leaving Cert level, and the more recently established community colleges, the VEC remit now includes the provision of adult, community, sports and outdoor, Traveller and prisoner education. The VECs also operate the Youthreach programme for early schoolleavers and the VTOS programme for the unemployed.
"There is no doubt," comments Dr Sheila Drudy, senior lecturer in education at NUI Maynooth, "that the VECs have catered for and provided for disadvantage when nobody else was doing it. They do a lot of innovative work."
A major VEC success of recent years is the growth of Post Leaving Cert courses, which now offer places to more than 20,000 students.
The benefit of the VECs is that they are "locally based, democratically elected and publicly accountable education committees," says Moriarty. "We represent a devolved education system of government."
VEC budgets are provided by central government and, once elected by their local authorities, committee members are responsible to the Department. "Because of our local roots," says Moriarty, "we can identify the needs of the community and have the freedom and authority to respond to these needs."
But, because the VECs are local authority committees, the role of VEC chief executive officers is often overlooked. Their drive and initiative can have a huge effect on a VEC.
"VECs have been important contributors to Irish education for the past 60 years," writes Frank Murray, chairman of the Commission on School Accommodation, in the report of the steering committee on the rationalisation of the VECs (Murray Report). "The sector has experienced and adapted to many changes since 1930. The VECs are significant providers of education and training and the leadership of the chief executive officers has enabled the sector to respond to new challenges with commendable expediency."
The fact that a number of CEOs have been appointed - and left in place for years - in an acting capacity only, is regarded as a flaw in the system. "It leads to a degree of uncertainty," comments Jim Dorney, general secretary of the TUI. "The acting CEOs have tended to be principals of larger schools and their posts, in turn, have been filled in an acting capacity."
Currently, VECs consist of 14 members nominated by the local authority - between five and eight of them are councillors, while the balance is made up of community representatives nominated by the local authority. The Murray Report, however, recommends a 20-member committee to include seven public representatives, three parents, three teachers and one clerical/ administrative VEC staff member, three nominees of the local economy and trade unions and three nominees of voluntary and community groups. It is widely believed that the inclusion of parents, teachers and non-politically appointed voluntary and community groups would do much to diminish the public perception of VEC politicisation.
The recently introduced, revamped teacher appointment process has reduced the possibility of political interference. Appointment panels now include two VEC members, an education expert, a human resources expert and a Department inspector.
New appointments criteria and an appeals mechanism have also been put in place. "It will improve the appointments regime and will, in my opinion, overcome allegations of political interference," comments Dorney.
Up until recently there were 38 VECs but, as a result of recommendations made in the Murray Report, VECs in Bray, Drogheda, Sligo, Wexford and Tralee were merged with the VECs in their respective counties. The report also recommends a range of amalgamations in other areas of the country to reduce the number of VECs to 21.
The largest VEC is the City of Dublin committee, with 21 second-level schools and an enrolment of over 11,000. Co Dublin VEC ranks second, with 19 schools and 10,016 pupils, followed by Co Cork VEC with 21 schools and 8,291 students.
Among the smaller VECs are Co Waterford and City of Waterford with two schools each and Dun Laoghaire, City of Limerick, Co Louth, City of Galway and Co Roscommon which all have three schools. Counties Longford and Cavan each have four schools, while Counties Westmeath, Laois, Monaghan, Leitrim and Carlow boast five schools each. The report notes that the declining birthrate will impact further on schools in these areas.
"Taking population base enrolments in second-level schools, VTOS, Youthreach and adult education as a guide to size, City of Dublin, Co Cork and Co Dublin are much larger than the other schemes," the Murray report states. "While these three schemes differ in population density and geographic spread, significant professional and administrative support for the schools and other services provided by Co Cork VEC ensures that the wide geographic remit is not an obstacle to effectiveness. Scrutiny of statistics for the small VEC schemes leads to the conviction that there are duplication of resources in administration. The present VEC structure needs a better balance between administrative mechanisms and services."
However, a further merging of VECs is likely to be politically unpopular. It is predicted that, when it comes to the legislation, Minister Martin will avoid biting that particular bullet and opt for a model that simply ensures greater interVEC cooperation.
