Administrative informatics in schools. The Northern Ireland CLASS project

This paper examines the policy and strategy issues presented by a programme to computerize the administration of all post-primary schools in Northern Ireland. Costing more than £10 million, the Computerised Local Administration System for Schools (CLASS) initiative will cover almost 250 schools and will contribute to a government policy which is designed to give them financial and administrative management autonomy. On the teaching and learning side, with national curriculum legislation now in place, CLASS is designed to provide tools for curriculum organization and optimization and also to provide the mechanisms for the statutory assessment and reporting requirements. In presenting this paper the authors seek to examine the role of computers in school administration and the manner in which administrative hardware and software is likely to develop in the future.