O'Keeffe can't vouch for own staff's absences
- Published: 24 November 2008
Source : Irish Independent
EDUCATION Minister Batt O'Keeffe does not know how many sick days his own staff are taking -- despite highlighting the level of absences by teachers.
Although almost all his ministerial colleagues provided figures for absences in their departments, Mr O'Keeffe said the figures would take "some time" to be compiled.
"The information sought ... is not readily available at my department," he said.
Mr O'Keeffe incurred the wrath of teachers' unions last week when he referred specifically to the high cost of substitute cover on Mondays and Fridays.
He presented detailed sick leave figures to the Oireachtas Education Committee to justify his decision to reduce substitute cover from January and require sick teachers to provide a medical cert before a substitute teacher is provided.
Mr O'Keeffe was first asked about the number of sick days taken in the Department of Education two weeks ago by Fine Gael deputy leader Richard Bruton, and again last week by Labour TD Roisin Shortall. But on both occasions, he said the figures were being compiled.
A spokesman for Mr O'Keeffe said the figures would be available today.
The spokesman denied that Mr O'Keeffe had been attacking teachers by presenting statistics on their number of sick days, saying he was merely providing "information".
It comes in the wake of the news that the state spending watchdog, the Comptroller and Auditor General, has launched an investigation into civil service absenteeism due to concerns that some civil servants are "swinging the lead" or taking "duvet days".
But the Public Service Executive Union, which has many members in the civil service, said it still believed there was not a "huge problem" with absenteeism.
- Michael Brennan
Minority taking excessive sick leave give teaching 'bad name'
- Published: 24 November 2008
Source : Irish Independent
A tiny number of teachers are giving the profession a 'bad name' by taking an excessive number of uncertified sick leave days per year.
New figures show that last year more than 1,000 teachers took 10 or more days without a doctor's cert. Thirty-eight teachers took more than 20 uncertified sick days.
Under existing regulations, primary teachers can take a maximum of 31 uncertified sick leave days in a school year; teachers in secondary and community/comprehensive schools can take up to 30 uncertified sick leave days but in VEC schools the max is seven days.
Despite this generous provision, official figures show that overall teacher absentee rate is low. Last year the average level of uncertified sick leave for primary teachers for which substitute claims were submitted was 1.31 days. The average for secondary and community/comprehensive schools was 1.6 days.
Majority
Unions and managers are adamant that there is no major problem with uncertified sick leave among the vast majority of the country's 60,000 teachers.
But Clive Byrne director of the National Association of Principals and Deputies accepted that a tiny minority was dragging the profession down and giving it a bad name.
Ferdia Kelly from the secondary school managers' body, the JMB, said he was not aware of any major difficulty but acknowledged that it was an issue for a small minority.
"Obviously, every sector would like all employees to be at work every day." He said the managers were focussed on the situation in January when substitution cover for uncertified leave is withdrawn. They are seeking a meeting with Minister O'Keefe and, if no change is forthcoming, will meet to draw up guidelines for schools.
John Carr, general secretary of the INTO, said what the figures do not record are the thousands of days where teachers who are ill report for duty because substitute teachers cannot be found.
- John Walshe and Fiach Kelly
Parents and teachers refuse to back down in cutbacks row
- Published: 24 November 2008
Source : Irish Independent
EDUCATION Minister Batt O'Keeffe has been warned that furious parents and teachers will not back down in opposing controversial cutbacks that will dramatically increase class sizes and stall new school developments.
The warning came as an estimated 10,000 people protested in Cork city centre over the weekend in the escalating row over proposed education cutbacks.
The protest march was the latest in a series of demonstrations organised by the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) to highlight the implications for the primary school sector of the budgetary cutbacks proposed by Minister O'Keeffe.
Plight
Minister O'Keeffe warned that the budgetary changes are simply unavoidable given Ireland's economic plight and the financial situation facing the Government.
However, the INTO warned that it is morally wrong to make parents and children pay for Ireland's economic woes -- arguing that the Celtic Tiger was created in the first instance by Ireland's strategic investment in education.
One parent, Mary O'Sullivan, supported the protest march on Saturday afternoon having driven all the way from Barraduff in Kerry.
"Where we are in Barraduff the class size is just right and you can see it. There is a nice tidy number and what he (her five-year-old son, Joshua) has learned in a couple of months in school is unbelievable," she said.
"Once one thing goes it is going to have a knock-on effect on everything because teachers that now give time to something outside their remit won't be able to even do what they are supposed to be doing.
"There is no point in waiting for everyone else to fight for this. Some people always wait for everyone else to fight the battle. Then they complain when the battle is lost."
One Cork teacher warned that the education sector simply cannot sustain the proposed cutbacks. "I came today because I am a teacher at Cloghroe National School and our school is going to be impacted," warned teacher Eileen Keady.
"We are okay for this year, but next year an appointment won't be made that should be made because the right number of children are there to make it. So we are very upset that any changes are being made and that the Government has gone back on its promise to lower class size," she said.
"I regard it as a slap in the face. We were going to have a teacher appointed to teach the foreign language children and now it won't go ahead.
"If you can't understand what is being said how can you learn?"
Teachers and parents have vowed to continue to mount similar protests until the Government reverses its cutback policies.
- Ralph Riegel
Reforms give school heads more power to discipline poor teachers
- Published: 22 November 2008
Source : Irish Times
SCHOOL PRINCIPALS and boards of management will have a key role in new procedures on the suspension and dismissal of teachers.
The new rules, agreed by the department and the teacher unions and due to be formally finalised on Monday, should make it easier for schools to address underperformance by teachers. At present, only a handful of the 50,000 teachers in the State are suspended or dismissed every year. The Department of Education has been pressing for the new rules for more than a decade.
Under the new procedures, the school can move to suspend or dismiss the teacher after a lengthy process involving the principal, the board of management and inspectors from the department.
The principal will have much more sweeping powers under the new arrangements. Any move towards suspension is triggered in the first instance by the principal while the board can impose a wide range of sanctions up to and including dismissal.
However, teacher unions stress that a teacher can opt for a review by a Department of Education inspector at any stage in the process.
The procedure's key stages are:
• the school principal will draw up an improvement plan for an underperforming teacher, specifying "the perceived deficiencies" of the teacher and set out the supports available;
• the principal will report - normally after a three-month period - to the board of management;
• if the board decides further action is required, it will request the Department of Education inspectors to review the teacher's work in class. The board can decide to proceed to a full disciplinary hearing at which the teacher can make his/her case;
• if it is decided to take disciplinary action, the board can avail of a wide range of sanctions including deferral or withdrawal of an increment, suspension with or without pay and dismissal.
The new rules say that any concerns raised by parents about the performance of teachers should be investigated by the principal who will decide whether action is required. If the principal triggers the new procedures, the parent will be informed of the final outcome of the process.
The new rules will, for the first time, apply to all teachers in primary, secondary, vocational, community and comprehensive schools. They replace a wide variety of rules for each teaching sector.
Unions have expressed concern about the impact of the new rules giving a key role to the principal particularly in smaller schools where strained personal relations could be a factor. The unions are also concerned that a principal is not always qualified to assess the work of a teacher in a particular subject.
© 2008 The Irish Times
New procedures are tough but clear
- Published: 22 November 2008
Source : Irish Independent
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.
