IPPN

John Walshe

Ten years after the Education Act was passed we finally have a deal to implement on its key provisions: how to deal with seriously underperform-ing teachers. With nearly 60,000 primary and second-level teachers in our schools, it's inevitable that some are just not up to the job.

There is a myth that you can't get rid of a bad teacher. There are procedures but they can take a long time to work through. Hence, the final document to emerge from the negotiations is welcome.

It allows for fast-track procedures to deal with teachers who have ongoing professional problems.

It will take time to bed down but everybody will have to see that it works. The mere fact of its existence will help keep under-performers on their toes, especially if their principal initiates the formal process whereby an improve-ment plan is drawn up.

If no improvement is made, the process moves on, with the board eventually deciding if sanctions are needed. These can take the form of a final written censure; deferral of an increment; withdrawal of an increment; suspension with or without pay; or dismissal. Tough but clear.

The document is also timely because of the budget-ary decision to scrap the early-retirement scheme for teachers which has been used by nearly 2,000 teachers in the past 12 years. Dubbed, unfairly, the escape route for the "mad, bad and sad" it was designed for teachers experiencing professional difficulties or whose "depart-ure would provide an opportunity to enhance the education service provided by the school by facilitating change such as the introduction of new skills and curriculum review".

The third strand was for those seen as surplus. Many principals encouraged seriously underperforming members of staff to avail of the scheme and leave in a dignified manner.