Mr. Ken Whyte:

I thank the joint committee for its invitation. The joint management board on behalf of voluntary schools has made a substantial submission covering nearly all of the heads of the Bill and the regulations. I was asked by our board to draw the committee's attention to some concerns, the first of which relates to head 4 which gives the Minister power to make regulations concerning the admission of students to schools. Heads 12 and 13 indicate that a patron and the Minister might appoint somebody to operate the admissions policy. We have some concerns that by giving power to bodies outside the board of management to operate a schools admission policy, it would, in effect, amount to micro-management. The board of management is responsible for the management of the school and should be allowed the authority to exercise that responsibility. Should it not comply with various laws and regulations, the Minister would have the ultimate power to remove it.

A second point is on heads 5 and 7 and section 29 of the Education Act 1998. We are concerned about the removal of the appeal to the Secretary General, which might be a retrograde step. We believe strongly that there should always be an appeals mechanism beyond the school and the current process has worked well, although at times it is a little cumbersome. It is considered to be a fair and transparent process. By eliminating it, the only option left to parents will be the courts and the last thing the education system needs is more litigation.

There is also the matter of the past pupil criterion. We support the idea of having the children of past pupils in our school. Their involvement brings a sense of tradition and history to a school. We do not see the logic in putting a cap on the number of offspring of past pupils that may be admitted and question the claimed benefits of such a cap.