VECs may take charge of non-teaching tasks

ALL schools could have their staffing, maintenance and other non-teaching tasks handled by Vocational Education Committees (VECs) under major reforms planned by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn.

He believes the function of finding cover for teacher absences is one of many which can be taken over by the VECs. They currently have responsibility for more than 250 second-level schools and further-education colleges, education services for Travellers and early school-leavers, and adult education.

But the minister thinks their services should be available to the rest of the country’s 4,000 primary and second-level schools. Under plans announced by his predecessor Mary Coughlan last year, the 33 city and county VECs will be reduced to just 16 as smaller bodies are merged together.