Towards a Better Future

Towards a Better Future: A Review of the Irish School System
In Ireland, the growth of a new engagement with educational leadership can be seen in a number
of developments over the last two decades. These developments range across policy-making,
organisational changes and the provision of educational courses. They include the following:
■ The growth of post-graduate courses in educational management during the nineties – at
Master’s level and more widely at post-graduate diploma level
■ The establishment of the In-career Development Unit within the DES in 1994, reorganised
and expanded as the Teacher Education Section (TES) in 2004
■ The setting up of NAPD in 1998 and of IPPN in 2000
■ The provision of a more secure basis for the Education Centres by the Education Act 1998
■ The establishment of the School Development Planning Initiative (SDPI) in 1999
■ The establishment of the Leadership Development for Schools service (LDS) in 2002
■ The development of designated educational leadership courses at post-graduate level in the
later part of the new century – including the PGDEL /Tóraíocht course under the joint
auspices of LDS and National University of Ireland Maynooth, and further educational
leadership courses by other universities
■ The establishment of the Centre for School Leadership (CSL) in 2015, resulting from joint
efforts by IPPN, NAPD and DES.
In the pages that follow, some important issues that are specifically concerned with educational
leadership are selected for consideration. Arising from a review of these issues,some possibilities for
further developments in leadership policy and practice are put forward.
CLARIFICATIONS
In view of the background sketched out above, it is important at the start to distinguish between
administration, management, leadership and governance in education. It is worth noting in passing
here that management and leadership are mentioned as separate functions of the school principal
in Section 23 of the 1998 Education Act. While acknowledging that the everyday use of the term
‘management’ is generally taken to include administration, management and leadership, and
sometimes governance, clarifying the difference between the terms helps to identify what is particular
to each and to prevent any confusion of purposes:
■
■
Administration - taking care of the daily, weekly, monthly and annual tasks that have to be
completed to keep the school functioning
Management - ‘getting things done through people’ – some of the ‘things’ being matters of
administration and some being matters of leadership
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