THERE are few that would disagree that all States departments should be run efficiently, making the best use public funds. Education is no exception. It accounts for about 14% of our annual budget.
Teacher shortages are starting to bite in all schools across the Island and there are worrying anecdotes of teachers now having to pay for their own basic equipment in schools; pens, pencils and papers etc. So where is all the money being spent? Is it being spent wisely and is there enough cash being allocated in the first place? As the new education minister settles into his/her chair where might s/he look to make efficiencies?
Education administration at head office employs around 150 people of which over a third are ‘managers’. Some of these posts are essential but not all of them. The total budget for these ancillary staff is around £5 million pounds. Besides Justin Donovan, Chief Education Officer, we have four more ‘Directors’ of Education, all on eye-watering salaries; three ‘Finance Managers’, three IT managers (there are only eight in the department), three professional ‘partners’ (advisors costing around £1 million); 17 other advisory staff and even a ‘Head of Communications’ (press officer!). What do these jobs have to do with ‘education’?
The department has recently employed an executive headteacher, a job role that is lost on most of us. We already have numerous headteachers so why we do we have to create another layer of management?
Is the post essential? What does the role entail? Does it give value for money? The ratio of educational psychologists to the number of pupils is better than the UK, yet most children in need still have to wait months to be processed.
Classroom teachers are closely scrutinised and judged on their performance in raising standards of achievement but where is the accountability within education administration? What are their targets? How is their progress measured? Two surveys, one of bullying and harassment within the States and another of teachers have yet to be published. Will they ever see the light of day?
In our secondary schools there can be as many as nine senior management posts. Most are ‘assistant’ headteachers. This is a layer below the deputy headteacher and above heads of department. Their roles vary. One is administrative, creating rotas, collating data, organising group activities, proof reading school reports and suchlike.
All of this work can be done at much less cost by office staff.
Another role is to monitor teacher performance using in-class observations and meetings (lots of meetings!) to discuss and disseminate.
There can be as many as three of these ‘assistant headteachers’ in a single class at any moment in time. To facilitate this, these teachers are on half-timetables.
It beggars belief that in a time of teacher shortages schools are being so profligate. In the meantime pastoral (child welfare) is cut to the bone.
Efficiencies should not be confused with cost cutting, the two are not mutually inclusive.
The money saved by trimming the fat could and should be used at the chalkface. With only 4% of resource funding available (in the UK it is 15% and that is low!) to provide basic equipment in schools where the education budget is spent needs to be reviewed.
Time and motion studies compare input with output.
Schools can be more businesslike but they will never be a business although recent ideological and pedagogical influences have attempted to make schools just that.
Even if we accept the premise and judge productivity of the present regime, it has failed to inspire with just over 1% per annum being added to the total since its inception four years ago.
Where in this business ethic lies the wellbeing of pupils and staff?
Lack of initiative, lack of innovation and a bullying culture have created a desert, an educational monoculture that is going to take a long time to repair.
There are those in senior posts who should be looking over their shoulder. But then incompetence in education is rarely a sackable offence.
One headteacher racked up a deficit of £650,000 and was promoted to head office!
That education in the Island is grossly underfunded is well documented and if progress is to be made this shortfall will have to be addressed and with it how the money is best used.
With a new broom perhaps we can begin to build a cradle to grave education system that better meets the needs of all children in the Island.
Contact Colin at behaviourinschools@gmail.com.
