11.6 Governance and leadership in the school system

11.6 Governance and leadership in the school system

Two aspects of the governance of schooling and education are likely to require attention in the immediate and medium term. The first concerns the management and leadership of schools; the second concerns the need for coherence across the administration of the education system.

The governance of schools

The Irish school system is extraordinarily fortunate in the calibre of those who lead Irish schools and in the volunteerism evident among those who serve on the boards of management of over 4,000 schools throughout the country. Without the efforts that they make, the administration of the system would simply not be possible.

However, the current roles of school leaders and volunteer members of boards of management are unlikely to be sustainable into the future. While the vast majority of boards strive valiantly to administer and lead their schools, very many are not equipped to carry out the wide range of responsibilities assigned to them (and other employers), including strategic planning, financial management, procurement, human resources management and compliance with regulations, including those concerning health and safety, child protection and environmental protection. All of these responsibilities are necessary for the good governance of a school and the provision of a safe and healthy environment for learning and teaching. However, boards of management made up of volunteers, especially those in small primary schools, can feel that the range and burden of such tasks is excessive. When additional, and particularly more complex problems arise, such as managing large-scale capital expenditure or dealing with poorly performing staff or serious parental complaints, boards can simply be overwhelmed. Nationally organised management bodies can, and do, provide an important level of advice and support to individual boards of management but they are not equipped, nor do they have the authority, to carry out functions on behalf of individual local schools.

Inevitably, many of these duties land back on the desk of the school principal. In larger primary schools and in many post-primary schools, boards of management may have a greater spread of skills among board members and the principal may have greater opportunity to devolve tasks to promoted staff members. However, by relying on voluntary boards of management to be the sole administrative mechanism at local level for the vast majority of schools, we create an unsustainable workload for many, if not most, principals and we erode their ability to lead and improve teaching and learning in schools.

In summary, a significant revision is needed in the management of schools. Many of the functions currently carried out by boards of management and principals require a level of specialist expertise that could be provided more effectively and efficiently across numbers of schools, and the Department has taken initiatives to support common procurement, to improve the financial management of schools, and to manage school building projects at local level. While the Department’s shared governance pilot programme for primary schools has the potential to provide further solutions, it is acknowledged that the problem outlined here is complex, touching as it does on long-established structures and relationships. However, the experience coming from inspection, from principals’ organisations, and from patrons who find recruitment of board members and principals increasingly challenging, points to the need for change in the way we administer Irish schools. Failure to address this issue will only lead to fewer candidates of ability seeking positions as school leaders and, inevitably, the quality of school leadership and educational provision in classrooms will suffer. Stronger collaborative working between the Department and stakeholders, including parents and students – already evident in the Primary Forum, the Advisory Group on State Examinations, and in the development of inspection practice discussed below – could assist greatly in finding a resolution to this issue.

Coherence across the administration of the education system

Irish children and young people move through different phases of provision during their educational journey – from early learning and care, to primary school, to Junior Cycle and Senior Cycle in post-primary schools and, as young adults, on to further and higher education. Evidence suggests that each transition point is a time of risk for the learner170 when discontinuity in provision can create challenges and, at times, even result in regression for the learner. Transition points can also be the time when older children begin to become disaffected and at risk of dropping out of the system entirely. This is why it is so important that we do everything possible to ensure continuity in curriculum provision and learning while, at the same time, providing learning experiences that challenge and are age appropriate.

Since 2011, two government departments have shared responsibility for educational provision in the period from birth to adulthood; since 2020, a third department has been established in this area. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) has lead responsibility for the provision of early learning and care, the Department of Education has lead responsibility for education in schools and other settings up to the end of post-primary education, and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science is responsible for tertiary education. All three have cross-cutting responsibilities. There are many advantages to having ministers, departments and officials with responsibility for specific phases of provision, not least the capacity it creates to focus on the complex challenges and the particular contexts of each phase of education. Indeed, a number of other educational systems have adopted various divisions of labour in the education sector from time to time.

It is important, however, that the needs of learners for coherence and continuity in their educational experience are borne in mind by all responsible for educational administration, teaching and learning. The Department of Education and its fellow Departments at early learning and care and tertiary education have a responsibility to create structures and working cultures that ensure coherence across the work of their Departments and in the work of their agencies and the settings, schools, colleges and other institutions that provide services to learners. The implementation of senior cycle reform, the development of complementary curricula for early learning and care and primary pupils, the provision of seamless supports for children with special educational needs as they move from phase to phase, the appropriate sharing and using of information about student progress from one level to the next, and the development of common teacher skills are just some examples of where such coordination in policy formation and implementation will be so important for young people in the years ahead.