The new Education Bill has been generally welcomed by the education partners for its emphasis on consultation, its scrapping of regional boards and its definition of the role of teachers. However, its failure to curb the centralisation of education was criticised.
Fine Gael's education spokesman, Mr Richard Bruton, attacked the Bill for putting power back in the hands of the bureaucrats in the Department of Education.
"While the Minister may be right in wishing to rethink the regional education boards, he is undoubtedly wrong in failing to provide some framework through which powers and funds could be devolved to bodies at a local level," he said.
He said there would be particular disappointment that interschool support services such as psychological services and transport are "now vested back in the Department". The secondary teachers' union, the ASTI, said it would mount a campaign of action, including industrial action, to make sure that boards of management were set up in all second-level schools. The National Parents Council (Primary) said it was "alarmed" at the narrowing of the grounds on which students and their parents could take appeals. Parents could not support an appeal procedure relating only to "alleged misbehaviour of students."
Such a procedure should also "provide for timely redress" when a child is "materially and adversely affected" by decisions of a board of management, a teacher or another student.
The Conference of Religious of Ireland expressed surprise that, while the Minister had abandoned regional education boards, he had not proposed any new structures to make education more responsive to local needs. The Association of Managers of Catholic Secondary Schools said the decision not to make boards of management compulsory "recognises the fact that such a measure was open to legal and constitutional challenges and would have embroiled all parties in protracted wrangling to the detriment of the Bill . . ."