Minister gives backing to apprentice teacher plan [independent.ie]
- Published: 15 April 2009
Source: independent.ie
By Katherine Donnelly
Wednesday April 15 2009
EDUCATION Minister Batt O'Keeffe has given conditional backing to a radical plan to offer a jobs lifeline to newly-graduated teachers by employing them on an apprentice-style scheme in schools.
They would be paid €20,000 a year -- about half the normal starting salary -- for doing 10-15 hours a week for up to two years, while also studying for a Master's degree.
Speaking after he addressed the INTO conference in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, yesterday, the minister said that he intended to talk to Professor Tom Collins of the National University of Ireland Maynooth, who mooted the idea.
He described Prof Collins as an eminent educationalist and said, as a minister, he was very receptive to good ideas.
"We are fiscally very tight and I want to ensure that I can do it within budget. If there are ways and mechanisms by which we can engage teachers who may not be employed gainfully, at a minimum cost, obviously we are going to consider it," Mr O'Keeffe said.
"I am going to sit down and talk to him and look in detail at the proposal and see its merits and what the implications for my department are."
The obvious advantages of the scheme include saving teachers from the dole queue while upgrading their qualification and providing extra resources for schools. Prof Collins also believes it can be done on an exchequer-neutral basis by using existing funding mechanisms within the Department of Social and Family Affairs, the Department of Education and Science and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in a new way.
He sees it as a solution to meeting the needs of about 1,000 HDip students due to graduate this summer while plugging gaps caused by education cutbacks in second-level schools, which are due to lose about 1,000 teaching posts in September.
There are also about 2,000 graduates expected to leave primary teacher training colleges this summer.
Worst
While Prof Collins' proposal is based around second-level education, it could also have relevance in other areas.
Prof Collins says his scheme would allow newly-qualified teachers to begin to practice their profession and continue their academic advancement while also mitigating the worst effects of the education cutbacks.
He said it would mean that minority subjects and programmes currently threatened by the cutbacks could be retained, while other staff members in the school could potentially be freed up to pursue other studies if they wish.
He said participants in the scheme would be supernumerary and it would not result in a reduction of the current teacher allocation to the host school.
- Katherine Donnelly
Industrial action in schools moves a step closer [independent.ie]
- Published: 15 April 2009
Source: independent.ie
INDUSTRIAL action in primary and secondary-level schools moved a step closer yesterday as teachers vented their fury over pay and education cuts.
Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe felt the chill wind of their anger as he embarked on his first round of the annual Easter conferences.
He was greeted with frosty receptions at both the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) and the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI), and faces a similarly cool mood today at the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) gathering, in his native Cork.
About 40 of the 800 INTO delegates walked out in protest when the minister rose to speak, and his address, a defence of the Government's handling of the economic crisis, was greeted with frequent bursts of derisory laughter.
Later, at the ASTI, about 20 delegates walked out and his speech met with a muted applause.
All three teacher unions already have a mandate for up to two days of industrial action over the Government's handling of the economic crisis.
Yesterday, the INTO adopted a number of motions calling for action, up to and including strike, which will now be considered by the union executive.
Budgets
The 400-plus TUI delegates backed a programme of industrial protests to force the reinstatement of school budgets and teaching resources.
The ASTI will consider motions today demanding the removal of the pensions levy and withdrawal of the moratorium on filling posts of responsibility.
The only positive news from the minister to the INTO was his confirmation that €100m would be spent this year on the Summer Works Scheme, a programme for small-scale building and maintenance works for schools.
INTO general secretary John Carr dispatched the minister with the message that they needed "fewer pious sentiments, handwringing and excuses" ringing in his ears.
ASTI president Pat Hurley said teachers and students were not responsible for the decline in public finances.
TUI president Don Ryan described the Government's package of pay cuts and school budget cutbacks as "an outrageous attack" and warned it would be "fool-hardly" to rely on the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) or other unions to fight the cutbacks.
Mr Carr said workers and children were picking up the tab for "unregulated corporate greed".
"I want you to be in no doubt when you leave here today about the depth of anger among teachers, the sense of outrage in schools and the feeling of betrayal in communities up and down the country.
"Where once young children paid to seek a cowboy film, now they pay for the cowboys," one of a number of colourful phrases which drew a smile even from the minister.
Attacking the decision to increase class sizes, Mr Carr said: "Like Michael O'Leary's airports, Ireland's class sizes are miles away from where they should be."
He added that Mr O'Keeffe's sums on teaching job losses represented "Sean FitzPatrick-style accounting in the eve of an Anglo Irish AGM".
"Lest there be any misunderstanding, that remark is confined to the mathematics used and not to personal probity. Perhaps you learned your maths in an overcrowded class."
The minister was reminded of the indignant fury felt by teachers when he mistakenly accused them last autumn of a 40pc sick leave rate on Mondays and Fridays.
Mr Carr said he could accept that it was a mistake, "had I heard one word of an apology today".
Later at a briefing with journalists, the minister said: "If John Carr feels aggrieved, I am sorry about that and I apologise to him."
- Katherine Donnelly, John Walshe and Ralph Riegel
Calls for appeals system where pupils with disabilities lose care support [Irish Examiner]
- Published: 15 April 2009
Source: Irish Examiner
AN appeals mechanism must be put in place for cases where care support is withdrawn from pupils with disabilities, primary teachers demanded yesterday.
The cutbacks in various education services and the impact of two budgets since October on teachers' pay were the subject of a number of motions on which members of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) backed industrial action at their annual congress yesterday.
Limerick delegate Ann McMahon said it is more important now than ever to have an appeals procedure for children who have the service of a special needs assistant (SNA) withdrawn or reduced. The Department of Education has a number of reviews of the number of SNAs working with children who have special needs and it is strongly expected that hundreds of children could lose such supports next autumn.
"If you apply for a medical card and are refused, you can appeal the decision, or you can appeal if you apply for any kind of social welfare payment and get refused," Ms McMahon said.
"But if your children are recommended certain resource allocation in a professional report and those recommendations are denied or modified by a special educational needs organiser, there is no appeals process," she said.
Ms McMahon said the process demanded by delegates, who passed a motion on the issue yesterday, should be independent and transparent.
Earlier, the INTO congress backed a motion seeking a day of action with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions before the end of June to defend public services and jobs in response to various cuts to pay and conditions of public service workers. The union, along with fellow teacher unions, is already mandated to stage up to two days of strikes in protest at education cutbacks and the public service pension levy.
Another motion passed by INTO delegates in Letterkenny gives their executive sanction to take industrial action in pursuit of its campaign to have class size reductions in the Programme for Government implemented. Last October's budget reduced primary school staffing allocations, meaning many schools will have children in larger classes than this year from next autumn.
North Clare branch member Michael O'Connor said four rural schools in his area would each lose one of their four teachers as a result.
"This was done with absolutely no thought for parents, pupils or needs of the school and this is coupled with no automatic substitution, which could result in chaos if a teacher or teachers are ill on a particular day," he said.
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.
Primary teachers demand an end to prefabs [INTO]
- Published: 15 April 2009
Source: INTO
Teachers at the INTO Congress in Letterkenny have called for an end to the use of pre-fabs for classrooms. Delegates at the conference adopted a motion deploring "the vast sums of money being wasted on the rental and purchase of prefabricated buildings.
The conference called for discussions to begin on more cost-effective ways of providing school buildings.
INTO General Secretary John Carr said prefabs are not acceptable classroom accommodation. "Prefabs are economically nonsensical and educationally indefensible and their use should be phased out completely."
He said no child should be sentenced to eight years of primary education in a prefab.
