Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) in Schools

Since February 2002 boards have no longer been required by legislation to report annually to the Chief Review Officer, Education Review Office, on the extent to which objectives in the EEO programme were met.

Since January 2005 boards of trustees have no longer been required by legislation to develop, publish and implement a new EEO programme each year.   Whilst the annual requirement has been repealed, boards are still required to have an EEO programme in place.

The State Sector Act 1988 (s77A and s77D) still requires boards of trustees, as employers in the education service, to:

1.operate a personnel policy that complies with the principle of being a good employer; and
2.make that policy (including the equal employment opportunities programme) available to its employees; and
3.ensure its compliance with that policy and report in its annual report on the extent of its compliance.

The chief executive of the Ministry of Education is responsible for promoting, developing, and monitoring equal employment opportunities policies and programmes in the Education service.  The Ministry has produced resources to assist boards in this process 

There are four sections

1 What is EEO?  This section explores why EEO is relevant and how it can benefit your school, and answers some common questions.

2 Putting EEO into practice  This section outlines some key steps to take in developing and implementing your EEO strategy.

3 EEO Self-assessment checklist  This checklist is designed to help your school reflect on how well it is implementing EEO and to give you ideas on what else you can do. You can print it off and photocopy it to use as a working document.

4 Useful resources  If you want to know more, this section refers you to Equal Employment Trust's website.