IPPN Competitors

The Education Authority (EA) was created on 01 April 2015 as a new organisation responsible to the Department of Education (DE) for the delivery of education services to schools and youth centres across Northern Ireland. The work we do impacts the lives of tens of thousands of children, young people and their families every day. The services we provide are essential in supporting, encouraging and facilitating learning within our communities to develop generations of young people who are equipped to succeed in life and work in the modern world. As a public sector organisation, we must continue to deliver these vital services in a challenging environment of increasing financial pressure and under intense public scrutiny. EA is at the beginning of an exciting journey of organisational transformation and modernisation. Emerging from the five Education and Library Boards (ELBs) our aim is to build a new organisation which is focused on meeting the needs of all our young people equally, removing barriers to learning and ensuring equality of access to excellent education services so that every child can develop to his or her full potential.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) was set up to improve the delivery of education services to persons with special educational needs arising from disabilities with particular emphasis on children. The Council was first established as an independent statutory body by order of the Minister for Education and Science in December 2003. Our local service is delivered through our national network of Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) who interact with parents and schools and liaise with the HSE in providing resources to support children with special educational needs.

The ASTI is Ireland's main second level teachers union and represents 20,200 teachers in community schools, community colleges, comprehensive schools and voluntary secondary schools attended by 80% of all second-level students. The ASTI acts as a professional association voicing the concerns and interests of the teaching profession at second-level and as a registered trade union which protects teachers and fights for improvements in their pay and conditions of employment.