The Education Authority (Irish: Údarás Oideachais) is a non-departmental body sponsored by the Department of Education in Northern Ireland. It was established under the Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2014 (c. 12)^[1] which was passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly. The authority became operational on 1 April 2015.^[2]

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Education Authority

Údarás Oideachais (Irish) Lear Owerance (Ulster Scots)
Formation	April 1, 2015; 9 years ago (2015-04-01)
Type	Non-departmental body
Headquarters	Academy Street, Belfast, BT1 2NQ
Chief Executive	Sara Long
Chair	Mr Barry Mulholland
Website	www.eani.org.uk

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The Education Authority is responsible for ensuring that efficient and effective primary and secondary education services are available to meet the needs of children and young people, and support for the provision of efficient and effective youth services.^[3] These services were previously delivered by the five Education and Library Boards (ELBs). Each of the former ELBs is now a sub region of the Education Authority:

• Belfast Region^[4]
• North Eastern Region^[5]
• South Eastern Region^[6]
• Southern Region^[7]
• Western Region^[8]

The Education Authority Board consists of 20 members plus the Chair. These include:

• 8 political members who were nominated by political parties according to the D’Hondt mechanism;
• 4 members representative of the interests of the Transferors (the Church of Ireland, the Methodist Church in Ireland, and the Presbyterian Church in Ireland) of controlled schools;
• 4 members representative of the interests of the Trustees of maintained schools;
• 1 member representative of the interests of Integrated schools;
• 1 member representative of the interests of Irish medium schools;
• 1 member representative of the interests of Voluntary Grammar schools; and
• 1 member representative of the interests of Controlled Grammar schools^[9]