Teaching unions need to calm down and wise up [timesonline.co.uk]
- Published: 05 April 2010
It’s that time of year again. Stony-faced belligerence, implausible allegations, wild sabre rattling, howls of pent-up anguish, cries of defiance searching for a target; yes, it’s the teaching unions’ conference season.
I like and admire teachers. I encourage my children to respect them. Granted, they have a tendency to grumble, to talk shop. Some can be prone to unworldliness, lacking insight into the world beyond the classroom.
But none of us is perfect. I think teaching a truly noble calling, among society’s most important. My parents, now retired, were schoolteachers. This is why I lament the public relations disaster inflicted annually on the profession — and state education — by the teaching unions’ conferences.
Full Story: www.timesonline.co.uk
Graduates lose out to unqualified staff [Independent.ie]
- Published: 05 April 2010
MORE than 700 unqualified teachers have been employed by primary and secondary schools despite hundreds of recent teaching graduates struggling to find work.
The situation is particularly severe at primary level, which accounted for the vast majority of the 715 unqualified teachers who have been employed by schools.
Some 629 unqualified teachers were in charge of primary classrooms over the past two years, while 86 were employed at second level, figures obtained by the Irish Independent reveal.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Furious teachers turn their backs on Fianna Fail [Independent.ie]
- Published: 05 April 2010
THE Government is facing a major backlash from angry teachers at the next General Election.
Just 8pc of primary teachers say they will vote for Fianna Fail in the next election, while two-thirds will vote for Fine Gael or Labour, a new opinion poll reveals.
The survey of a representative sample of 349 teachers was carried out by the INTO during the week of March 22.
Included in the sample were principals, deputy principals, assistant principals, special duties teachers and unpromoted teachers from all 26 counties.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
All credit to special teachers, children and heroic parents who turned the tide [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 05 April 2010
KIERAN Kennedy, CEO of Shine, autistic spectrum organisation, says (Letters, March 15) "the present situation is only reinforcing exclusion.
The minister, the Government and the teaching establishment appear to want to ignore the needs of special needs children".
Full Story: www.irishexaminer.com
A better image for teachers? [IrishTimes]
- Published: 05 April 2010
THE ANNUAL teacher union conferences will attract considerable media attention this week; indeed there can be few groups whose views are reported so comprehensively. But do the teacher unions make the most of this opportunity? Do these conferences portray the teaching profession as a group of dedicated professionals? Do they help teachers build bridges with parents, potentially their most important allies?
In recent years, some teacher union conferences have done little to bolster the image of the profession. Last year, the leadership of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) was forced to apologise to former minister Batt O’Keeffe after he was barracked by some delegates. This year, the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) – in a very petulant gesture – decided not to invite the Minister because of pay and pension cuts. At the conferences themselves, substantial debate on education issues is often crowded out.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
