Governance and Funding of Voluntary Secondary Schools in Ireland

This study presents a comprehensive picture of educational governance and financing among second-level schools in Ireland.There are three second-level sectors in Ireland, 1 which have their origins in historical developments and policy changes: voluntary secondary schools, vocational schools (including community colleges), and community/comprehensive schools (see Chapter 3).Broadly interpreted, governance refers to the ownership, organisation and management of schools.The mode of governance varies across different types of schools, with voluntary secondary schools increasingly being governed by lay School Trusts; community/comprehensive schools under the joint trusteeship of religious orders and the state while vocational schools (including community colleges) are under the trusteeship of the state.The way in which the different school types are financed and the extent to which the state supports the trusteeship function across the three second-level sectors also varies, as shown in this report.While all sectors have undergone significant changes since the conception of the education system, these changes have been particularly pronounced in denominational 2 voluntary secondary schools, the prime focus of this study.Denominational schools have been an important part of the educational landscape in Ireland and currently make up just over half of all second-level schools catering for almost 60 per cent of all second-level student intake.Recent years have seen a decline in the number of religious personnel, resulting in less direct involvement of religious orders in school governance and the emergence of new structures in the form of lay Education Trust Companies (see Chapter 4) responsible for the education enterprise and properties.In tandem with this development, members of religious orders who previously provided Trustee services on a voluntary (unpaid) basis have been replaced by paid personnel funded by Congregations or independent Trust Companies.In the context of constrained educational expenditure in general, these developments have raised concerns about the sustainability of the voluntary secondary sector (McGrath, 2006; Reynolds, 2005).1 While there are more accurately four types of second-level education provision, for the purposes of this report vocational schools and community colleges are treated as one sector, governed by the VECs/ETBs. 2A wide variety of terms are used in the literature, including 'faith schools' and 'religious schools'.Here, to reflect ordinary usage in Ireland, the term 'denominational school' is used to refer to a voluntary secondary school under the trusteeship of a religious order, diocese or lay trust. viii | Go vernan ce and Fundin g o f Volu ntary S econdary Schoo ls in Irelan dThis study seeks to provide new evidence to inform the debate on school governance and funding.It draws on in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in Ireland, including the representatives of Education Trust Companies, vocational and community/comprehensive school sectors as well as the Department of Education and Skills and religious organisations; administrative data, and a largescale representative survey of second-level chairpersons of school boards of management and school principals.The analysis of data on the Irish context is contextualised with an analysis of school and funding structures in four international case-study jurisdictions. THE INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVEDebate about the future of denominational schools is not confined to the Irish context.An analysis of the models of governance of schools and funding of trusteeship in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia and Canada (Ontario) was conducted based on existing research and policy documentation as well as direct communication with relevant stakeholders in these jurisdictions.School structures are found to be firmly embedded in national (or regional) political, cultural and social contexts, thus constraining the possibility of directly 'transplanting' one model from one context to another.However, insights from other systems can contribute to 'policy learning' (Raffe, 2011), allowing us to reflect on what can be gleaned from international models through the lens of the Irish experience.Our analysis indicated that the countries studied had adopted different approaches to the governance, ownership and funding of denominational schools that can be broadly characterised as distinct models or typologies:1.The hand-over of school ownership to the state, which fully funds their entire costs, along with legal provision to maintain their denominational ethos (Scotland, Northern Ireland);2. The maintenance of school autonomy (including covering the development of the characteristic spirit or ethos), while receiving 90 per cent of their funding from the state and 10 per cent from the Church (England and

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