November 2003
Educational Welfare Board Gets Permanent Head

Mr Eddie Ward has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of the National Educational Welfare Board, the statutory agency set up to support regular school attendance and the education of children and young people. He has served in this post on an acting basis since August 2002. Mr Ward’s formal appointment is for a period of seven years.

Immediately prior to his appointment to the NEWB, Mr Ward worked at the Department of Education and Science where he had responsibility for educational services for children at risk, as well as disadvantaged schemes at primary level and early school leaving. He also worked in the post primary and policy areas of the Department.

Mr Ward is a native of Dunmore, Co Galway and a graduate of NUI Galway. He is a Chartered Accountant by profession. He joined the Civil Service in 1986 and served in the Departments of Social and Family Affairs and Finance, respectively, before joining the Department of Education & Science in 1995.

Mr Ward is committed to appointing educational welfare officers to all areas of the country to assist families, children and schools on school attendance matters. There are 700,000 school aged children and 4,000 schools who are entitled to receive services from the Board. To meet this, the aim is to have 330 Educational Welfare Officers in place as soon as possible.

In addition, under Mr Ward, the Board will establish a register and assessment process for children being educated in settings outside of recognised schools. The Board will also establish a register for young people aged 16 and 17 who leave school to work so that they can be helped with further education and training. Finally, working in support of schools, parents and teachers, the Board will oversee the first comprehensive and systematic collection of data on school attendance in Ireland and will carry out research on why some children may not want to attend school.

Over the past year, Mr Ward has laid the foundations for the new national service and the first new educational welfare staff will be appointed shortly.

For more information contact:

Edel Hackett
Tel: 087-2935207