Debate contribution: Education Inspections Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Ms Claire Sugden on 1 June 2026.

MLA

Ms Claire Sugden

Party at the time

Independent

Date

1 June 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Education Inspections Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5582109

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Like other Members, there are aspects of the Bill that I support — indeed, I support two thirds of it — but there is an area that concerns me. Members will not be surprised, given the debate, to hear what that area is. I will start with the provisions relating to religious education. It seems that there is broad recognition across the Chamber that the Assembly simply cannot ignore the Supreme Court judgement. The court identified a gap in the current arrangements. It is therefore our responsibility as legislators to respond to that judgement. I have no difficulty anyway with the principle that religious education should be subject to inspection in the same way as other areas of the curriculum; of course it should be. Inspection is ultimately about transparency, accountability and ensuring that standards are met. If we expect that to happen elsewhere in our education system, it is difficult to argue that religious education should sit outside that framework. Similarly, I understand the rationale behind extending inspection arrangements to education providers that currently sit outside existing structures. Where public money is being invested in education provision, there is a legitimate public interest in ensuring that provision can be assessed appropriately. Members will not be surprised to learn that my concerns relate almost entirely to the provisions on inspections, cooperation and disciplinary action. Like other Members, I have received many emails from teachers, school leaders and union members. What struck me most about those emails was that I was being asked to reject the Bill outright in very few of them; in fact, many explicitly supported the religious education provisions and accepted that legislative change is required in that area. Their concerns, as we have heard, focused on the disciplinary provisions. I do not believe that teachers are raising those concerns because they are opposed to accountability, nor do I believe that they are arguing that schools should never be inspected. I hear something quite different. Teachers talk about increasing workloads, the growing administrative burden, recruitment difficulties, retention challenges and the increasing complexity of the issues that they are dealing with every day. The school day does not end when the bell rings. Lessons have to be prepared, work has to be marked, reports have to be completed, parents have to be contacted and pastoral issues have to be managed. That work does not begin and end in term time. I think that many of us assume that, for teachers, school's out for summer, but many of them spend significant parts of their evenings, weekends and school holidays preparing for the year ahead, because, while they are teaching our children during the day, much of that additional work has to be done outside the classroom. Increasingly, teachers help children to navigate challenges that extend far beyond education. They are identifying safeguarding concerns, supporting young people with mental health and special educational needs and dealing with the consequences of pressures that, elsewhere, our public services are failing to deal with. The reality of today's classroom is very different from what it was even a number of years ago. As support services have come under pressure, more and more responsibility has fallen on schools and, ultimately, on our teachers. We speak regularly in the Chamber about waiting lists for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), pressures in special educational needs, difficulties accessing assessment and the growing complexity that we now see, yet we do not always acknowledge the impact that those pressures have on teachers and on the environment in which they work. For years, teachers have been telling us that the demands placed on them are becoming increasingly difficult to sustain. Sadly, many teachers do not look at the proposals and see support; many see another layer of pressure being added to an already stretched profession. Many feel that they have not been listened to for years. What they see in the Bill is not support: they see another sanction. That may not be the Minister's intention, but that is how the provisions are being received by many in the profession. That really should concern all of us.

Yes, please go ahead.

693 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:47 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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