The Department of Education and Science is undergoing a major transformation. As reported in today's editions, virtually all of the senior staff have been re-assigned in the past week while new standing committees across a range of policy areas are to be established.
This is a good and a progressive move, very much in line with the recommendations of the landmark Cromien Report on the Department two years ago. Mr Sean Cromien, the distinguished former secretary-general of the Department of Finance, portrayed the Department in an unflattering light. Department officials, he said, find their time dominated by urgent matters and have little time to step back and take the longer view. In essence, even senior officials had no time to pause for breath as they answered Dáil questions, dealt with leaky roofs at some rural school or organised the State exams.
A great deal has been achieved in the two years since Mr Cromien reported. The Department has divested itself of a wide range of functions. Responsibility for the exams will be transferred to an independent agency. There is less time spent chasing up parish- pump Dáil queries as the Department puts a new stress on openness and accountability.
Senior officials in the Department deserve much credit for the progress which has been achieved. The Minister, Mr Dempsey, has also acted as a catalyst for change. He has an impatient and progressive style, which should be of long-term benefit to the Department.
There is much to be done in the policy area and it is good to see the Department clearing its desk - and re-assigning staff to meet the challenge. The decision to re-assign senior staff is a good one. Given the enormous social and economic changes in this State in the past decade, it is good that new perspectives are being brought to the range of issues.
The Department should play a much more significant role in policy. It could, as the DCU president, Dr Ferdinand von Prondzynnski hinted recently, do much more to energise the third-level sector. It could be more involved in setting the education agenda at primary and second level instead of allowing the teaching unions to dominate. On the day in which a major OECD conference begins in Dublin, it might also embrace that organisation's focus on the citizen as a consumer of education. The Department should take the lead in making the education service more accountable to the ordinary citizen.