THE GOVERNMENT is expected to press ahead with the abolition of several Vocational Education Committees (VEC) as it moves to implement key aspects of the McCarthy report.
While the McCarthy report proposed cutting the number of VECs from 33 to 22, Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe did not rule out even deeper cuts yesterday. He also signalled a major scaling back of the VEC administration with key support functions such as payroll, finance, human resources and IT being organised centrally.
But Mr O’Keeffe told vocational school managers – members of the Irish Vocational Education Association (IVEA) – that he also envisaged an expanded role for the VECs in primary education. While condemning the McCarthy proposals, IVEA members endorsed a motion backing talks with the Department of Education on the future of the vocational sector.
In a strongly-worded address, Ted Owen, chief executive of the City of Cork VEC, told delegates it would be a serious strategic error to stick their heads in the sand in response to McCarthy. “We in the VEC sector can and will expand our role, but only in partnership with the department,” he said.
Spending in the vocational sector has increased from €731 million in 2005 to €949 million this year. Some 87 per cent of this is teachers’ pay. The 33 VECs are made up of 27 counties, five cities and one borough – each with their own administrative structure.
Mr O’Keeffe said the structure needs to be future-proofed so it can make the fullest contribution to the aim of transforming how all public services are delivered. “If we were starting with a blank canvas, I do not believe we would create 33 individual bodies to deliver services within a vocational education system,” he said.
Mr O’Keeffe said he intends to plan reform on the basis of change within the system and not the abolition of the system.
At a press briefing later, the Minister disclosed the VEC sector would shortly take over the management of two more State-run primary schools. The City of Dublin VEC already runs two new primary schools in west Dublin.
He promised to consider any written submissions the IVEA and VECs might wish to make in the coming weeks.
IVEA president Mary Bohan said the McCarthy report had caused great disappointment and disillusionment.
“VECs are deeply rooted in their communities. They are of the community, and peopled by the community,” she said. Provincial Ireland, she added, has been stripped of too many of its assets.
At a time of obvious need for locally-based education services, it is important that our Government stands behind our local education authority framework.”