Deputy Chief Minister Stuart Falla (pictured) and Chief Minister Mike Torode spoke to the media yesterday about the report which has been critical of the running of the Education Department. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 0543407)
EDUCATION has failed to deal with the problems within its management structure, it was claimed yesterday.
Deputy Chief Minister Stuart Falla has accused the board of being reluctant to investigate and deal with the problems within the department. ‘They had the tools in the box but did not pick them up and use them,’ he said.
The board’s lack of action led to a call from Deputy Jean Pritchard for an independent review of the management structure.
The report by Professor Trevor Robinson was never intended to be a witch-hunt, said Deputy Falla. But it has highlighted that there are issues to be addressed within the management structure.
‘The present board has not been strong enough to tackle these problems,’ he said.
But Education minister Martin Ozanne rejected the claim.
‘We simply did not have the power to act to resolve issues like this, he said.
‘The Education board is not the employer of the established staff and we were not in a position to change members of senior management.
‘It would be wrong of me to say at this time whether members of the management team should go,’ said Deputy Ozanne.
He confirmed that he would not be seeking re-election to the States next month.
‘Whoever is elected to take my place as Education minister will need to be given the tools to sort out the problem, he said.
‘It will not be a quick fix. It will have to be worked through with the help of the Policy Council.’
Deputy Dave Jones, who signed Deputy Pritchard’s petition which could have led to a requete being taken to the House, said he had read the report with interest, but was disappointed with some of its findings.
‘I would have liked it to have been more forthright with its conclusions and it should have named names,’ he said.
Deputy Jones said that there had been concerns expressed about the loss of good staff as long as six years ago and nothing had happened.
Deputy Education minister Wendy Morgan strongly denied this.
‘We have tried and tried to resolve this problem, she said.
‘To say that this is all down to the inaction of the board is categorically not true.’
Article posted on 1st March, 2008 - 9.27am
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