The new Education (Welfare) Bill 1999 is causing "grave concern" among principals, according to the president of the Association of Principals of Vocational Schools and Community Colleges. Mattie Kilroy says the APVSCC hopes that amendments will be put in place before the Bill is enacted in order to safeguard the position of principals. The Bill is expected to be enacted before Christmas or early in the new year at the latest. It is due to go to Committee Stage shortly.
Kilroy, addressing over 200 principals at the recent annual congress of the APVSCC in Kilkenny late last week, stressed the importance of attendance, student retention, early school leaving and discipline procedures in the Bill. "We fully support that but," he says, "we, as principals, do not want to be tied to daily clerical reporting of difficulties".
The Bill would place "statutory obligations on principals to report to welfare officers on a daily basis" on a range of issues including attendance or absences, suspensions and the working of students in their care as well as the duties placed on principals as secretaries to boards of management.
"Don't get me wrong," he says, "of course we welcome action on attendance and absences, suspensions and expulsions but don't place all obligations of reporting at the desk of an overworked school principal." Kilroy called on the Minister to appoint school liaison officers to serve all schools and place the responsibility on them as Department of Education appointees.
"The social ills of society must not always be the responsibility of school as an institution," he said. Richard Bruton, Fine Gael spokesman on education, expressed concern in the Dail last month about this issue also. He said that the Bill's framework "is all about statutory duties that are almost exclusively put upon the schools and the parents. The school will have to inform the education welfare officer and the officer will have to serve notices to parents." These are the obligations involved, he pointed out. "But where is the supportive action in the Bill?" he asked.
Pat Carey TD, who was a teacher for over 30 years, told TDs attending the same Dail debate, that he had "some minor reservations but it is a good Bill - provided the necessary resources are committed". The Bill "will address many of the issues regarding early school leaving, absenteeism and the provision of a minimum education", he said.
Willie O'Dea TD, the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, told the Dail that the Bill "represents a radical but necessary departure from the traditional approach to the problem of non-attendance."
The Bill will, he says, provide a structure to encourage and promote school attendance, up to Leaving Cert level or its equivalent. Over 10,000 teenagers leave the education system each year without any qualifications, according to the Minister for State.
Other issues referred to by Kilroy in his address included the setting up of a review body on in-service, home school liaison officers, promotional posts and the resultant loss of hours, adult and further education, school development planning, the publication of exam results, the national qualifications authority of Ireland, the pilot scheme on whole school evaluation and investment in sport in our schools.
