New Year ESA Deadline 'Won't Be Met'

The SDLP Education spokesperson Dominic Bradley has slammed the collapse of proposals for an Education and Skills Authority (ESA).

He claimed yesterday that this "underlines just how much damage the Sinn Féin/DUP standoff is doing to the educational system".

"Education Minister Caitriona Ruane (pictured) has had to come to the Assembly and admit that there will be no ESA in January because she can't get the legislation through the Executive.

"There will be no single body taking over from our five education and library boards.

"In its place she has cobbled together an emergency patchwork of cut-down boards which will have to do their best to run our schools system for an unspecified time in a policy vacuum.

"The Minister could not tell us what was the statutory basis for these cut-down boards and already their legality is being questioned," he fumed.

"She could not tell us if positions in the ELBs will be properly protected, in fact she didn't really answer questions at all," he continued, insisting that parents don't want to hear an "endless blame game" and everlasting conflict on all the big educational issues.

"They expect politicians to come up with reasonable, workable compromises and they expect the Minister responsible to get on with it.

"The outlines of a consensus are emerging on schools transfer, but that is in spite of the Minister, not because of her.

"What sort of a future are we offering children if on all the big issues, the greatest obstacle to progress is the Minister?" he asked.

The MLA was commenting after NI Education Minister, Caitríona Ruane, told the Assembly that work to establish the new Education and Skills Authority "must and will continue".

During a statement to the Assembly, the Minister set out transitional governance and management arrangements for the period up to the establishment of the Education and Skills Authority.

"The Executive committed itself to 1 January 2010 as the establishment date for the Education and Skills Authority.

"That date is no longer achievable and I am now moving to put in place arrangements to ensure that work to enable convergence of the affected organisations continues.

"Reform of the administration of education is essential to improve educational standards for all children and deliver front-line services more efficiently."

The Minister went on to outline the new arrangements which will be in place. She said: "To simply reconstitute the existing Boards is not an option.

"I have decided to use existing legislation to reduce the membership of the Boards by over half so we have smaller decision-making structures in place.

"I am also looking at the appropriate membership arrangements for the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools, the Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment, the Staff Commission and the Youth Council," she said.

(BMcC/KMcA)