Briefing Paper transforming education 05 The Governance of Schools 1. The Purpose Schools in NI are managed by unpaid boards of governors (BoGs) that work alongside the head teacher to ensure that learning takes place in the best possible environment and that pupils reach academic targets. The task of school governance is difficult - this paper outlines some of the challenges facing school boards and the ways in which the construction of Northern Ireland’s education system may contribute to these. Alternative models are identified that could help to ensure that the school system is better able to meet the demands that are placed upon it. 2. Context 2.1 What is School Governance? In the business world any limited company will have a board that acts as a body to represent shareholders’ interests and works alongside a CEO to ensure commercial success. Similarly, every school in Northern Ireland that receives finance through the public purse (i.e. grant- aided) is legally required to have “a dynamic governing body, where [their] responsibilities are understood within a robust system of accountability”.1 Businesses are principally concerned with ensuring profitability for shareholders, but measuring the effectiveness of a school requires much more than recording a positive total on a financial balance sheet. The success of a school affects a particularly broad range of individuals, community interests and institutional stakeholders. School governance therefore requires a complex set of skills and the alignment of relationships between inter-dependent groups and people. 2.2 School Governance in the NI Education System The origins of the current system of education in NI can be traced to a letter from the Chief Secretary for Ireland, E.G. Stanley, in October 1831. The Stanley letter set out plans for the development of a national system of education which would admit children of “all religious persuasions [but] not interfere with the peculiar tenets of any”. Stanley’s system was governed by a National Board of Education consisting of three Anglican, two Presbyterian and two Catholic members. Applications were invited from “Christians of all denominations” to set up a national network of local schools and it was emphasised that joint applications from Catholics and Protestants would be met with financial favour. Penal Laws introduced in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had outlawed the provision of education by the Catholic church and those Protestant denominations that dissented from the established Anglican faith. This draconian legislation had been repealed by the time that the National schools were introduced, but those who had been persecuted remained suspicious of the new system. The Catholic church brought pressure to bear on the National Board to allow them to control their own schools and Presbyterian opposition was so strong that in Co Antrim and Co Down National schools were burned and teachers intimidated. Consequently, by the mid-19th century, only 4% of schools were under mixed management.2 1 DE (2019) Governor Guide https://www.education-ni.gov.uk/publications/guide-governor-roles-and-responsibilities 2 Cohen, M. (2000). “Drifting with Denominationalism”: A Situated Examination of Irish National Schools in Nineteenth-Century Tullylish, County Down. History of Education Quarterly, 40(1), 49-70. doi:10.2307/369180 02 transforming education The Governance of Schools The churches were similarly critical of the NI government’s efforts to establish a non-denominational system of education following the partition of Ireland in 1921. Eventually, following significant concessions that guaranteed church representation on the boards of state- controlled schools and the overall management of the sector, those Protestant denominations that managed their own schools (Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Methodist) agreed to transfer their schools to the new system. These transferred schools are classified as controlled schools. The Catholic church opted to keep its schools outside of the control of the state and, as a result, received lower levels of funding - although the salaries of teachers employed in these maintained schools were met from the public purse. In 1947 maintained schools were offered financial incentives in return for allowing representatives of the state system to sit (as a minority presence) on their BoGs. This division of management failed to gain significant support until 1968 when the Government’s offer was raised to 80% funding for capital expenditure and 100% funding for maintenance. Full parity of funding for those Catholic schools that included DE representatives on their BoGs was granted in 1993. The management of schools in this sector is overseen by the Catholic Council for Maintained Schools (CCMS). Northern Ireland is also home to a number of self-governing, fee-paying schools that had been set up by individual and church benefactors - including some Catholic religious orders - to provide schooling that could lead to higher education. The control of some of these voluntary grammar schools was also ceded to the state; however most (including all of those with a Catholic ethos) declined the offer of greater levels of state funding in return for retaining a higher level of autonomy. In 1981 Lagan College became the first school in NI to be established by a group of parents who expressly wanted Catholic and Protestant pupils to be educated alongside each other. Lagan and later planned integrated schools and are classified as Grant Maintained Integrated (GMI). Since 1989 the Department of Education (DE) has been legally required to “encourage and facilitate the development of integrated education” - a number of controlled schools have subsequently ‘transformed’ and have become controlled integrated schools. There are also 41 Irish-medium (IM) - 36 primary and five post primary - schools or units attached to English-medium schools in NI. IM school and units are to be found in both the controlled and maintained sectors and a proportion are classified as other maintained. The education system as it is currently manifest is thus one of great complexity and competing community-specific, sectoral interests – 93% of pupils attend schools that are largely separated along the traditional Irish/Catholic-British/Protestant axis. Managing Authority / Education Authority (EA) Controlled Other Stakeholders Governance (144,718 pupils)3 • Transferors Representative • Publicly owned Council (TRC) • Staff paid by DE • Controlled Schools Support Council (CSSC) • Contracting Authority is EA • NI Council for Integrated • EA provides maintenance Education (NICIE) facility management School Types Primary Secondary Special Grammar Integrated 362 Schools 48 Schools 36 Schools 16 Schools 22 Primary (Including 1 controlled 5 Secondary preparatory school) Managing Authority / Each School’s Board of Governors Voluntary Other Stakeholders Governance • Governing Bodies • Self-governing Grammar Association (GBA) Governors appointed in line • with each school’s scheme (50,784 pupils) of management Employs all staff (teaching • and non-teaching) School Types Preparatory Grammar Grammar (Under Other (Under Other (Under Catholic Management) Management) Management) 11 Schools 21 Schools 29 Schools 3All figures have been drawn from the from DE annual census 2019-20 https://www.education-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/education/ revised%203rd%20March%202020%20-%20Annual%20enrolments%20at%20schools%20and%20in%20pre-school%20....pdf 03 Managing Authority / Catholic Council for Maintained Schools (CCMS) Catholic Other Stakeholders Governance • Catholic Schools Trustee • Staff paid by DE Maintained Service Representative • Contracting Authority is EA (123,362 pupils) Council (TRC) • Commission for Catholic • EA provides maintenance Education facility management School Types Primary Secondary Special 360 Schools 57 Schools 1 School Managing Authority / Each School’s Board of Governors Grant Other Stakeholders Governance Maintained • NICIE (Sectoral Body) • Self-governing • Integrated Education Fund • Schools are owned and Integrated managed by BoG (16,910 pupils) • Employs all staff (teaching and non-teaching) School Types Primary Secondary 23 Schools 15 Schools Managing Authority / Various Irish Medium Stakeholders Governance (5,833 pupils) • Comhairle na In line with the managing Gaelscolaíochta (CnaG) authority i.e. (Sectoral Body) • Controlled • Iontaobhas na • Maintained Gaelscolaíochta (InaG) • Other Maintained School Types Primary IM Units in Secondary IM Units in 28 Schools English Medium 2 Schools English Medium Primary School Secondary School 7 Units 3 Units 04 transforming education The Governance of Schools 2.2.1 The Composition of Boards of Governors The current composition of the BoG in each of the various types of school in the NI system was laid down by the Education and Libraries (NI) Order 1986, and the Education (NI) Order 1997. Members represent the interests of: • Those who originally founded the school i.e. foundation governors (e.g. transferors or trustees). • Those who fund the education system (tax- payers) i.e. Education Authority (EA) and DE governors. • The pupils enrolled at the school i.e. parent governors. • The school staff i.e.teacher governors. The composition of the BoGs in the NI system differs according to sector. The BoG of a controlled school is legally required to include a proportion of representatives from the Protestant churches (transferors) but only controlled integrated schools