EEO Planning Resource for Schools
This resource provides schools with useful information about EEO in school settings and assists schools to develop their own EEO policies and practices.
How to use this guide
Use this guide to help you establish or refine Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) in your school, selecting the information that is relevant to your school's circumstances and size. Don't be put off by what you already know of EEO. Most of what you will read here will be common sense and good management practice, and you will be surprised at how much you are doing already.
Boards of trustees do have a legal responsibility to ensure that schools implement EEO. In some schools, board members or the whole board will take on the responsibility; in other schools, it will be delegated to the principal and/or staff.
Since February 2002 boards have no longer been required 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 to develop, publish and implement an EEO programme each year.
However, the State Sector Act 1988 does still require boards of trustees, as employers in the education service, to:
- operate a personnel policy that complies with the principle of being a good employer;
- make that policy (including the equal employment opportunities programme) available to its employees; and
- ensure its compliance with that policy (including its equal employment opportunities programme) and report in its annual report on the extent of its compliance.
If you need to make changes or introduce new practices, you will be able to do this at your pace and within your resources. The checklist in section three will help you keep abreast of how you are doing.
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 directs you to other useful resources. You might also want to refer to EEO in Schools: Good Practice Examples, produced by the Ministry of Education in 2002.