School boards need more training, says Ombudsman

SCHOOL boards should receive more training to help them deal with complaints from pupils and their parents, according to the Children’s Ombudsman Emily Logan.

Around one-third of the matters referred for investigation to Ms Logan’s office each year are related to education issues, most of which are about how complaints are handled by schools.

Her statutory role is not to investigate the substantive matter but how an organisation such as a school handles the matter. She can, for example, probe how a school’s board of management deals with a complaint that a child is being bullied.

“Sometimes, it’s not the substantive issue or the facts of the problem, but rather how it is dealt with that brings people to us. A smaller issue can become a big thing because it’s not dealt with or because of communication difficulties,” Ms Logan said.

“A school board is the board of directors, effectively running a school on a voluntary basis, and they need greater training and support,” she said.

Boards of management have increasing responsibilities in recent years, as a result of new education legislation and increasingly complex employment law.

The Department of Education provided funding for school board members to attend regional training sessions up to 2002, but since then all training has been funded independently.

The Catholic Primary School Managers’ Association (CPSMA) which represents around 95% of primary school boards, has spent €80,000 on training in the last four years, while each Catholic diocese has also funded programmes, with some spending more than €11,000 since 2002.

However, Education Minister Mary Hanafin has pledged that her department will restore the training fund this year to assist school boards beginning the next four-year term in December.

CPSMA general secretary Fr Dan O’Connor said it and other representative bodies are also seeking the re-establishment of a national steering committee to coordinate training programmes.

“Separately, we have also asked the Department of Health to restore a training programme for principals and board chairpersons on what to do if they become aware of any abuse of a child, either at or outside of school,” he said.