Hi °C | Lo °C Aroung 460 jobs will be lost across Northern Ireland when the new single education authority takes over from the five boards in January 2010.
The cuts were confirmed in the outline business case for the Education and Skills Authority (ESA).
The Department of Education confirmed ESA will be set up on January 1, 2010 — a year and nine months later than planned. The announcement came after the first Executive meeting for almost five months.
ESA will take over from the education boards and will also take on the functions of the Council for Curriculum Examinations and Assessment (CCEA), the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS), the Staff Commission and the Youth Council.
The department has already denied a claim by Sir Reg Empey and Michael McGimpsey that Education Minister Caitriona Ruane intends to use the new authority to do away with academic selection.
Ms Ruane told the Assembly that the new authority will raise standards and channel an extra £20m of savings each year.
The SDLP, however, queried making such radical change before agreeing a replacement for the 11-plus, while Ulster Unionists asked if the ESA was part of a wider political deal between Sinn Fein and the DUP.
A fund of £50m has been set aside for the formation of the ESA to replace the five education and library boards and four other bodies including the CCEA and the CCMS.
“In reforming the structures, let me make it clear that the deficiencies are in the current roles and arrangement of the organisations, not the people who work there. However, the structures have become obsolete,” said the Minister.
She said in non-grammar schools only 45% of pupils achieved five good GCSE grades, but in Catholic-managed non-grammars the figure was 49% and in controlled non-grammars the figure was 41%.
“Why are schools in one sector consistently out-performing schools in another sector? There can be only one possible conclusion — good practice doesn’t cross organisational and sectoral boundaries.”
