NAHT (NI) Response to Equality Company on Behalf of Equality Commission(NI) Consultation
Indicators of Equality of Opportunity and Good Relations In Education
Three Key Issues:
1/ Every Child Has Equality of Access to a Quality Educational Experience
NAHT (NI) supports the principle of equality of access. However, in reality many factors impinge on a pupil’s access to education. Parental income, availability of transport, rural/ urban factors and the provision of suitable schools all can impact on a child’s success in accessing appropriate education.
2/ Every Child is given the Opportunity to reach his or her Full Potential
Again this is a worthy aspiration but very difficult to achieve in practice. Schools in Northern Ireland have the lowest levels of funding extant in the UK. Recent Save the Children research shows a large gap between the NI average at less than £4,000 and the UK average at £4,700. Indeed in Scotland average expenditure is nearly £6000 per child.
Until money is redirected from wasteful bureaucracy and initiative overload this gap will militate against NI children reaching their full potential.
3/ The Ethos of Every School Promotes the Inclusion of all Children.
NAHT (NI) supports the general principle of inclusion. The outworking is not so simple. Many children with special needs are best served in our very successful Special Schools and the wholesale re-direction of these children into mainstream schools would not be in their best interest. The levels of support and expertise needed are not available in mainstream schools and there are no published plans to make these resources available. Inclusion as a means of cutting educational expenditure is certainly not in the interests of children and young people
Eight Priority Groups
All of the eight groups (Protestant working class boys; children from the Irish traveller community; Gay, lesbian and bisexual children; looked after children; children from minority ethnic backgrounds; children with disabilities; young people with caring responsibilities; children of new residents and migrant workers) have particular and individualised needs.
Schools are working hard to develop their expertise and skills in working with the different groups. NAHT (NI) welcomes support from the Equality Commission in addressing the needs of these groups.
The Indicator Framework
NAHT (NI) is concerned at the development of an indicator framework that may be imposed on schools. There are already huge pressures on schools with a wide range of initiatives from a range of outside agencies being imposed on schools. Additional demands for schools to meet and audit another set of indicators will be impossible to meet. The review of equality issues in schools is addressed during Department of Education Inspection of schools. There is no need for a second tier of assessment and the proposals for an Indicator framework should be reconsidered
Aidan Dolan
Director of Education NAHT(NI)
aidand@naht.org.uk
