Education Board Chief reflects on his role in the North East

Mr Topping, who took up the position on December 1, 1991, will attend his final Education Board (NEELB) meeting on May 25 and retire on May 31.

Before moving to County Hall, Ballymena, he held the posts of Education Officer and then Senior Education Officer in the South Eastern Board, and prior to that had been a teacher of geography and geology - at Bangor Grammar and Orangefield Boys’ School and also taught, under the auspices of the Voluntary Service Overseas, on an island in the West Indies.

Looking back almost two decades to the time of his appointment in the North East, he recalls the “immense task” of getting to know the many hundreds of staff working centrally, in schools, libraries and the youth service.

“However, as I got to know people, I marvelled at their commitment, their expertise, their creative ideas, their loyalty to the Board and their willingness to go ‘the extra mile’ to do their jobs to the best of their ability. My memory will be of people who can have fun, but who also do an excellent job,” he said.

“The theme of our work has been striving for excellence and continuous improvement,” said Mr Topping.

“It is with a sense of great pride that I recall the work that has been done to achieve Investors in People and maintain it for over a decade, to achieve Charter Mark in Libraries, Youth, CASS and most recently in Internal Audit as well as ISO in the Transport Service, some of these services being the first in the UK to reach these high standards,” he continued.

“Of course, our ultimate success was the achievement of the Northern Ireland Quality Award, which for a multi functional organisation the size of the Board with its geographical spread, is a tangible accolade of the quality of the services we provide and the staff who provide them”.

Mr Topping went on to pay tribute to the Board, its various chairs and members over the years.

“I believe the composition of the Board, representing, as it does, all sections of our society and all educational interests, is a model of governance which has shown itself to be effective and one which may be worth considering for future organisations,” he said.

“Although 40 per cent of the Board is composed of politicians I have seldom seen party politics at work, but I have seen community politics and this brings about weird and wonderful alliances around local issues.

“As a cross community body with a common purpose, during the most troubled period in our history, the Board did a fantastic job,” said the NEELB chief.

“The relationship with Board members is a crucial one - they oversee the officers’ work and they provide an accountability framework,” he added.

“I have been fortunate over the years to have had many outstanding Chairs, who together with interested, articulate members have been a great support and encouragement. Although I have to admit we have had our moments!”

The North Eastern Education and Library Board came into operation in 1973 at a time when there was community strife and tension throughout Northern Ireland.

Mr Topping said: “The Education Service in general and this Board in particular provided a sanctuary of sanity for children and staff when the world outside was going mad. No matter what was taking place on the streets, our priority was to give the future generation learning opportunities to provide equality of opportunity, to allow them to be good citizens, to enhance the prosperity of us all and to positively contribute to a society at peace with itself.

“As a responsible public body we have striven to provide leadership in what is one of the seminal purposes of Education, developing people to have respect for themselves, for each other, to have respect for difference and to create in the Board and schools a culture of tolerance.

“I am most proud of the way we have brought together people with a shared vision for young people, whether this is through the training of teachers and other staff, or bringing young people together through schools and the youth service or through our international work, allowing staff and students to experience different cultures and languages. Our Integrating Education policy and most recently our initiative with Learning Communities are all part of this development.

“When I look back, I think of some of the outstanding achievements of the Board and its officers – the scores of new schools, the improvements to our building stock, the introduction of new technology throughout the education, library and youth services, the ingenuity and innovation associated with ‘The Truck’ and NEELB tv, the development of Learning Communities and many, many more,” said Mr Topping.

“But above all I like to think of the many people whose lives have been changed by the opportunities they received and who were given direction, hope and purpose for the future.

“What a privilege it has been to work with a team of so many talented people whose main aim was to give all our children and young people better chances in life and to do it in an area of such outstanding beauty,” he said.