Education Minister announces dedicated support arrangements for controlled schools

Date published: 3 February 2025

The Taskforce completed its review in December 2024 and made recommendations on how more effective and equitable support and management could be provided to the sector in both the short and long term.

Accepting the recommendations Paul Givan said: 

“Controlled schools are a core part of our education system, comprising almost half of all schools across Northern Ireland including nursery, special, primary, secondary, grammar, integrated and Irish medium schools.

“The Independent Review of Education highlighted shortcomings in current support arrangements, and I am pleased that the Taskforce has identified practical steps that can be taken to improve support for our largest and diverse school sector.

“Today marks an important step on the education reform journey and I want to thank the Taskforce for their proposals. I also want to thank the school leaders and other partners who participated in the process.”

The recommendations involve two phases. In the first phase a dedicated Controlled Schools Unit will be set up within the Education Authority by September 2025. Subject to the progress of primary legislation, a separate Managing Authority for Controlled Schools will then be formed in the second phase.

The Education Minister concluded:

“Changing structures will not, in isolation, fully address the challenges faced by schools, but improved support for the sector can play a part in bringing about the greater consistency and equity of support in our education system, as promoted by the Independent Review.

“I believe that this approach can achieve the best of both worlds – preparing for a dedicated managing authority in the medium-term while bringing about improvements for the support for our controlled schools in the shorter-term”.

A copy of the report can be found here.

Notes to editors:

1. The controlled school sector is the largest in Northern Ireland, comprising 49% of all schools. It is a diverse sector which supports nursery, special, primary, secondary, grammar, integrated and Irish medium schools – currently teaching almost 150,000 of our children and young people.
2. The Independent Review of Education report highlighted the “complicated systems for school management, which are, in particular, suboptimal for the Controlled sector” and proposed that “sectors should be supported with greater consistency and equity”. It outlined the perception of controlled school leaders that the “EA is stretched too thin and is conflicted by servicing all school types, leaving Controlled schools relatively unsupported.” The establishment of a dedicated Managing Authority for Controlled Schools will be subject to the progression of primary legislation. Efforts will be made to progress this within the current Assembly term if possible and subject to Executive agreement.
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