Helen McEntee announces ‘largest national conversation on education in the State’s history’

A new national convention, to begin in the coming school year, will be the “largest national conversation on education in the history of the State”, Minister for Education Helen McEntee has said.

It is more than 30 years since the last National Education Convention issued its report in 1994, which led to the landmark Education Act and an overhaul of the administrative structures of primary and second-level education.

Given the changes that have taken place since, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education said Ms McEntee believed it was timely that work should start on a new National Education Convention.

She has instructed officials to advance plans so it can be established “early in the next school year”.