McNarry - Wasting public money to ignore public opinion nothing short of scandalous
Ulster Unionist Education Spokesperson David McNarry has strongly criticised the Department of Education for spending hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money on consultations which the department has consistently ignored in its rush to impose unsound post-primary arrangements on Northern Ireland.
He said that overall this was bad news for anyone who believes in democracy and bad news for anyone who believes in good government.
In a statement, the Strangford MLA said: “I think it is nothing short of scandalous that pots of public money have been stumped up for government to spend on what we now know have been phoney consultation processes.
“According to Lord Rooker, the total money spent on consultations has topped almost £800,000. The department is unable to quantify labour costs involved in launching these consultations, otherwise total costs would undoubtedly be significantly higher.
“A serious amount of time, money and effort has been devoted to these consultations. Fair enough - so how did the public respond? In the Household Survey element to the Burns Report, 64% of parents, and 62% of teachers, opposed the reform proposals.
“The consultation on post-primary arrangements had 14,000 respondents - 90% of which contained objections.
“So how did the government respond? Perhaps such widespread opposition would force a rethink. But no - Angela Smith has told Parliament that DENI has never analysed any alternative models to the 11-plus test.”
He added: “The government has gone to the people, and the people have objected. Why did the government spent our hard-earned taxes on what was ultimately a phoney consultation that would simply be ignored? Why waste close to £1 million in labour and publication costs at the time when Boards are being forced to cut key services?
“Overall this is bad news for anyone who believes in democracy and bad news for anyone who believes in the efficient administration of public money.”
Concluding he said: “In the past year we have had two Direct Rule Education Ministers in charge. Between them they managed just 121 days in Northern Ireland.
“During this time we have seen public opinion ignored, funding crises sweeping the Boards, school closures, belated realisation of a drop off in pupil numbers, errors in budgets, post-primary arrangements pushed forward, and the crisis of sex offenders in schools.
“Direct Rule Ministers cannot absolve themselves of blame for this chaos. The system presided over by Direct Rule does not work for the people of Northern Ireland. Education reform must be steered by full-time local representatives.”