Legislation to protect school inspections ‘red flag to bull’ – teachers’ union

Proposed legislation around school inspections has been described by a leading teachers’ union as “red flag to a bull”.

Teachers could potentially receive fines if they do not take part in school inspections under planned new legislation to be proposed by Education Minister Paul Givan.

The Department of Education has contended that Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK and Ireland where inspection lacks legal protection.

It comes after almost 10 years of disruption to school inspections, including industrial action by teachers over workload.

The Stormont Education Committee heard on Wednesday that three-quarters of inspections in the last eight academic years have been disrupted.

While agreement was reached between the unions and department earlier this year to resume inspections, Mr Givan is expected to bring it before the Assembly imminently.

The teachers’ unions and department officials appeared separately at the committee on Wednesday.

Justin McCamphill from the NASUWT said the unions secured an agreement around inspections in April, and described the prospect of the proposed legislation as a “red flag to a bull”.

“Things are going to be progressing over the next 12 months, we need to keep building the confidence,” he told MLAs.

“The independent review is going to report in November on workload, and again, there will be outworkings from it, so I think the focus needs to be on keeping building that confidence.

“I just think to bring in the legislation now is a red flag to the bull to the members.”

Committee chairman Nick Mathison said it is “absolutely vital” that there is an inspection regime, but added he had concerns around “the language of criminalisation”.

Later, Suzanne Kingon from the Department of Education said that with the return of inspections this year, five schools were identified as needing external support through the formal intervention process.

She said they were the first schools to enter formal intervention and receive external support since 2017.

In comparison, she said in the eight academic years before 2017, 80 schools received support.

Ms Kingon told MLAs the department had reviewed a range of options, but said it was clear that only “fit-for-purpose legislation will remove the ongoing disruption”.

She also said that without inspection, they had “no clear picture of educational effectiveness in individual schools or in our education system as a whole”.

She added that the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) is the only organisation that inspects the arrangements for child protection and wider safeguarding in schools and other educational establishments.

“No less than three quarters of ETI inspections in the last eight academic years have been impacted by action short of strike,” she said.

“It means that ETI is unable to provide assurance to parents, carers, school communities and all stakeholders about the quality of education being delivered.

“It also means that in each and every one of these cases, the ETI has been unable to fully evaluate child protection and wider safeguarding arrangements, a core and critical protection for children.”

She added: “Northern Ireland remains the only jurisdiction in the UK and Ireland without legislation to protect the integrity of inspection, this is not a technical gap, it is a systematic failure.”