Growing indiscipline in schools blamed on cutbacks and recession [IrishTimes]
- Published: 09 April 2010
TEACHERS' UNION OF IRELAND: DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOUR in classrooms has worsened as a result of the recession and education cutbacks, the Teachers’ Union of Ireland has warned.
The impact of pay cuts and job losses on some families has led to increasingly difficult behaviour among students, says the union.
Schools are losing structures they have put in place to tackle indiscipline because of the embargo on filling posts of responsibility.
In a behaviour and attitudes survey carried out on behalf of the TUI last week, 81 per cent of teachers said dealing with discipline had increased their workload over the last five years.
“Classroom disruption remains a matter of immediate concern to parents because it deprives their children of a proper learning environment,” TUI general secretary Peter MacMenamin said at the union’s annual congress in Ennis, Co Clare, which concluded yesterday.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Calls to give new teachers more hours [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 09 April 2010
THERE were strong calls yesterday for new teachers to be given more hours, amid fears that those struggling for work could suffer mental health problems while retired teachers take substitute classes.
The ASTI conference heard that retired teachers still taking substitute hours were "an embarrassment" and were taking a living from younger teachers, many of whom are struggling to get work.
Greta Harrison from west Mayo said teachers on the Live Register needed to be prioritised when it came to employing people in schools, while John Molloy, (Galway East) a retired teacher, said other retired teachers "are not welcome in the staff room" at a time when younger teachers are struggling for work.
Full Story: www.irishexaminer.com
Aoife Finneran: Silent treatment teaches Coughlan a tough lesson [Herald.ie]
- Published: 08 April 2010
IT'S a fact of life she should have learned as a child, but our calamitous Education Minister is today in no doubt that it doesn't pay to mess with the muinteoiri.
One would almost feel sorry for Mary Coughlan -- two weeks into a poisoned chalice of a job and she's already battling in the lions' den that is the teachers' conference.
So it begs the question, why bother with a pointless stint of window-dressing?
Full Story: www.herald.ie
Recession 'affecting school discipline' [IrishTimes]
- Published: 08 April 2010
Disruptive behaviour in classrooms has worsened as a result of the recession and education cutbacks, the Teacher' Union of Ireland has warned.
The impact of pay cuts and job losses on some families has led to increasingly difficult behaviour among students, say the union. Schools are losing structures they have put in place to tackle indiscipline because of the embargo on filling posts of responsibility.
In a Behaviour and Attitudes survey carried out on behalf of the TUI last week, 81 per cent of teachers said that dealing with discipline had increased their workload over the last five years.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
CLASS DIVIDE [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 08 April 2010
THE country’s teacher unions are deeply split on the public service pay deal after delegates took opposing views on how members should vote on the package at three conferences yesterday.
The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) annual congress voted unanimously to recommend its 15,000 members in colleges and second-level schools reject the deal and to take industrial action if they do so.
Despite deep anger about the cost to teachers of bailing out the banks and the prospect of further education cutbacks raised by Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, delegates at the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) annual congress voted narrowly not to recommend its 32,000 members reject the deal.
Full Story: www.irishexaminer.com
