Ministry of Education

Ministry of Education
Formed	1880
Central Office	Education House Kingsbury, CENT
Annual budget	£150 million
Senior administration
Minister of State	Amanda Sutton
Permanent Secretary	John Caspar
Executive agencies
Board of Studies New Ingrea Qualifications Authority Schools Inspectorate

The Ministry of Education is the government ministry responsible for the provision of education and training in New Ingrea. The current minister is Amanda Sutton.

Responsibilities

As a senior cabinet portfolio, the Ministry oversees the ministerial directorates and it's allied executive agencies. The Ministry's role is to raise the overall level of educational achievement and reduce disparity. Since the 1960s, the ministry has not been the provider of education in New Ingrea. That role is met by individual elected Boards of Trustees for every school in the country, in a manner similar to management of the New Ingrea health system. The ministry has numerous functions - advising government, providing information to the sector, providing learning resources, administering sector regulation and funding, and providing specialist services. The ministry works with other education agencies including the Board of Studies, the New Ingrea Qualifications Authority and the Schools Inspectorate.

Although the Ministry's role is raise the level of educational achievement, it is also the mechanism through which the Government of the day implements its education policy. When government changes aspects of its policy on education, the Ministry is responsible for implementing those changes. Any changes in education policy ideally require a consensus between government, teachers, parents, and the boards of trustees. Opposition from some or all of these groups make any policy change difficult to implement, and most governments have attempted to avoid these.

In order for the Ministry to perform its role effectively, it is dependent on taxpayer funding provided by Government. In the 2012/3 financial year, the Government provided about £150 million to fund all aspects of education in New Ingrea.

Ministers

The Ministry of Education is headed by the Minister of State for Education, who is supported by an Assistant Minister and a Parliamentary Secretary, all of whom are supported a large body of civil servants assigned to them to manage the minister's office and ministry.

Office		Name		Term
	Minister of State for Education		The Rt Hon. Amanda Sutton MHA	2012-present
	Assistant Minister for Education Deputy Minister for Vocational and Further Education		Senator Sarah Hughes	2012-present
	Deputy Minister for School Boards		Peta Hunt MHA	2012-present
	Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of State for Education		Matthew Taylor MHA	2012-present

Directorates and agencies

Departments

The ministry has six principal directorates:

Executive agencies

There are also a number of autonomous agencies under the control of the ministry:

Board of Studies

Further information: Board of Studies

Schools Information Technology Solutions Agency

The Schools Information Technology Solutions Agency (SITSA) is the information technology support service for all state schools across New Ingrea. Established in 2004 to replace the existing School Board IT support structure, the agency is based in Kingsbury and has an annual budget of £1.1 million. SITSA is charged with providing first, second, and third level support for all aspects of IT and communications; managing the raising and resolution of incidents and problems according industry best practice. The agency also manages the procurement and disposal for all IT and telephony fleets in schools. The Director of SITSA is John Hazelton, a notable New Ingrea IT manager with over 30 years of experience in both public and private sector organisations.