Election of New General Secretary [INTO]
- Published: 15 April 2009
Source: INTO
The new General Secretary of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) will be Sheila Nunan, the current Deputy General Secretary. She will replace John Carr, the current leader of the country's 30,000 primary teachers when he retires next year. She will hold the post of General Secretary Designate for a year.
Ms Nunan becomes the first woman to lead the INTO, the country's largest teaching union.
Born in Newbridge, Co. Kildare she now lives in Glencullen, Co. Dublin. She is a former teacher and principal teacher in Tallaght and in Bray, Co Wicklow, and has been a full time official of the union for three years.
She attended primary and secondary school in Holy Family School, Newbridge and then completed a degree in Politics and Sociology in UCD in 1978. The following year she received a post-graduate Diploma in Education from St. Patrick's College of Education in Drumcondra. She was elected President of the union in 2005 and was formerly a member of the union's Executive.
She secured over sixty percent of the ballots cast defeating Noel Ward, Senior Official, in the union by a margin of 10,113 to 6,114 votes. Ms Nunan said she was deeply honoured and humbled to have been elected by her colleagues. She said there were very serious challenges in the area of protecting teachers' living standards and securing additional resources for schools.
She committed to seeking the support of parents and the general public to ensure that primary education was protected from the economic downturn.
