Unqualified teachers ban fast-tracked [Independent.ie]
- Published: 27 April 2011
PRIMARY school teachers have threatened to refuse to work in the same school as unqualified staff from September.
The Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) yesterday delivered the ultimatum by fast-tracking a ban that they had not planned to implement until 2013.
It prompted a positive response from EducatIon Minister Ruairi Quinn who promised to consider the union's idea of panels of qualified teachers from which principals could source staff for substitute or temporary work.
The INTO decision to bring forward their boycott followed revelations in the Irish Independent this week showing hundreds of persons with no teaching qualifications working in primary schools.
The figures prompted an unscheduled debate at the INTO conference in Sligo yesterday, ending with overwhelming backing for the September boycott.
Newly-qualified Alan Bedford, who has not been able to get enough work to do his 170-day probationary period, gave a sense of their outrage at the use of the phrase "unqualified teacher" when he declared: "I am unqualified pilot."
Full Story: www.independent.ie
