Teachers who misbehave face sack in school rules shake-up
- Published: 04 November 2008
By John Walshe Education Editor
Tuesday November 04 2008
Teachers who are found guilty of serious misconduct or who pose a threat to the health and safety of students will be sacked under tough new rules.
A confidential Department of Education document obtained by the Irish Independent lists a long series of charges which will lead to a suspension on full pay, pending an investigation.
If this upholds the allegation of serious misconduct, "the normal consequence will be dismissal", according to the hard-hitting document.
Apart from theft and deliberate damage to school property, the document includes the following examples of serious misconduct:
- Gross insubordination.
- Incapacity to perform duties due to being under the influence of alcohol, unprescribed drugs or misuse of prescribed medication
- Serious breaches of confidentiality.
- Serious bullying, sexual harassment or harassment against fellow workers or students.
- Downloading/disseminating pornographic material from the internet.
- Circulation of offensive, obscene or indecent e-mails or text messages.
- Bringing the school's name into serious disrepute.
Other examples of serious misconduct listed are violent or disruptive behaviour; serious abuse or misuse of school property and equipment; serious breaches of health and safety rules; gross negligence or dereliction of duties and fraud or deliberate falsification of documents.
The document stresses the list is "not exhaustive". But it is likely to spark an angry reaction from some teachers, who may feel it is too open-ended. The document still has to be accepted by unions and management.
Appeals
Under the proposals, a teacher accused of misconduct will have the right to respond to all allegations, and to appeal to an independent body put in place by the minister. The group's findings will be binding on the board of management and on the teacher.
The appeal panel will comprise a chairperson appointed by the minister, nominees of management and unions. Any decision to dismiss a teacher must be made by the school board.
The 17-page document was drawn up by a drafting committee comprising representatives of unions, managers and the Department of Education.
Under the terms of Towards 2016, all sides agreed to revise existing procedures for dealing with the suspension and dismissal of teachers.
The report says a "significant majority" of teachers discharge their duties in a competent and efficient way, so any process geared to address matters of professional competency is aimed at a minority.
The document outlines procedures for dealing with underperformance, starting with the informal stage -- where the principal advises the teacher of concerns about their professional difficulties.
The teacher will have to resolve these within a term. Failure to do so can result in the principal reporting to the board, which can then ask the principal to draw up a formal improvement plan. If there is still no improvement within a term an external review is the next stage.
This will normally be carried out by the department's inspectorate. Failure to co-operate will be a disciplinary matter.
The inspectorate's report will be considered by the school board, which can decide to proceed to take any of the following disciplinary actions -- deferral or withdrawal of a pay increment, suspension for a limited period or dismissal.
This can be appealed to the independent appeals group.
The second section of the document deals with procedures relating to misconduct.
Teachers who are accused of misconduct will get a written warning, which will be removed from their file after six months if there has been satisfactory improvement. If that does not work, they will get a final written warning for another six months -- after which the board can decide on disciplinary action, including demotion.
But these stages will be dropped in the case of what's deemed to be serious misconduct, where the board can move immediately to suspension on full pay, pending investigation.
Sources say there is an urgency about the unions and managers accepting the deal as the early retirement scheme was dropped in the Budget.
This allowed teachers who were experiencing professional difficulties to retire early with an enhanced pension.
- John Walshe Education Editor
