Abolition of the SEC? (FG Plans)

dambarude

What do the teachers/assistant examiners/supervising examiners here think of the proposal? Fine Gael's "Reinventing Government" document proposes the following:

FG Page 84 wrote:

Merge the State Examinations Commission into the Department

in an attempt to reduce the amount of QUANGOs.

I have no direct dealings with the SEC (aside from being a student sitting exams), but I have always thought that it runs quite effectively. Has separating it from the DES made any difference in the way exams are run?

Would doing this save any money at all, or is it just a stunt so that FG can say 'look at how many QUANGOs we would cull?'. I'm guessing it's the latter.

spurious

The work of the SEC will still have to be done.
In terms of quangos, it'd be WAY down my list of those to get the chop.

rainbowtrout

Haven't noticed any difference in how the exams are run since the SEC was created but as spurious said, the work will still have to be done and it'll probably be the same people doing the work so really all they'll be doing is abolishing the name but not really reducing the numbers employed etc etc

dambarude

Exactly what I thought.

rainbowtrout

I suppose on paper it would look good for FG to say they abolished a quango, when in reality they haven't. To be honest I wouldn't class the SEC as a quango unlike many of the quangos that do exist. They are providing a service which needs to be provided.

Maybe they could abolish the Teaching Council instead. I can't imagine there would be many teachers complaining!

Here's a couple of quangos, if you don't know what they do, we probably don't need them!

Transport and the Marine Integrated Ticketing Project Board 2006
Finance Decentralisation Implementation Group 2003 (seeing as it hasn't really happened)
National Monitoring Committee Overseeing the Operation of repid programme 2001

dambarude

As they say, it's all about the optics.

I'm sure the only change that would happen at the SEC is the sign, and the headed paper. Which would probably end up costing money rather than saving it.:rolleyes:

rainbowtrout

They still operate out of the same building

dambarude

In that case they'd probably have to pay somebody to take down the sign!

delta_bravo

Abolishing it will probably end up costing more in "restructuring" and mergers and all that crap that people dont seem to think will happen when some of these Quangos are closed. It will be a popular decision to shut some of them down but in the long run savings may be negligble. I worked in a bank that was bought out by another one over 10 years ago and they still haven't fully switched over all their systems and all the associated stuff (I know its not an equal comparison but mergers are far from seamless).

rainbowtrout

delta_bravo wrote: »

Abolishing it will probably end up costing more in "restructuring" and mergers and all that crap that people dont seem to think will happen when some of these Quangos are closed. It will be a popular decision to shut some of them down but in the long run savings may be negligble. I worked in a bank that was bought out by another one over 10 years ago and they still haven't fully switched over all their systems and all the associated stuff (I know its not an equal comparison but mergers are far from seamless).

I'd agree. It's the same with the proposed mergers for the VECs. 33 down to 16 with a saving of €3m which in the bigger picture seems quite small. So what are they going to do with all the permanent staff? Redeploy them and continue to pay them. It's claimed that money will be recovered with the sale of buildings - who is going to buy them? Are they going to pay off all the unnecessary CEOs??

TheDriver

most people who used to set exams ended up in the SEC and less inspectors around then. There is not more people but rather a seperate entity to the Dept

implausible

Excellent - another question for my list when FG come a-knocking in the next few weeks

seriouslysweet

I'm only a student but genuinely I don't get what VECs are all about, why do they need another layer of management? More big wages from where I'm sitting.

rainbowtrout

seriouslysweet wrote: »

I'm only a student but genuinely I don't get what VECs are all about, why do they need another layer of management? More big wages from where I'm sitting.

They are responsible for the administration and running of vocational schools, community colleges, VTOS, further education colleges, back to education initiatives, education in the prisons and evening classes to name but a few things.