Schools to close as union approves teachers’ strike

Hundreds of schools and further education colleges face closure due to industrial action just two days before the general election.

The decision on Friday by the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) executive, to approve the strike for February 24 was described as completely inappropriate by Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan. But the TUI said the strike will take place unless meaningful progress is made with her department on issues of concern.

It would place pickets at 260 Education and Training Board (ETB) schools where most staff are TUI members, and most of the 95 community and comprehensive schools where TUI and Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) members work side-by- side. The strike would also affect further education colleges and classes, mostly under ETB management.

“Of key concern are the precarious employment status and income poverty of new and recent entrants to the profession, and the continuing, damaging effects of cutbacks on the service provided to students,” said the TUI president Gerry Quinn.

He said those who entered teaching from February 2012 with full-time hours started on 22% less pay than those who began teaching before 2011. But, he said, second-level teachers have to apply for fractions of full contracts, with no guarantee of employment from year to year.

“As a result of casualisation, students are often taught by a succession of teachers in a given subject area over the course of the Junior or Leaving Certificate cycle,” he said.

The union is also seeking progress on the continued block on posts such as year heads and other posts of responsibility being filled, and cuts to guidance counselling, which Mr Quinn said made it much harder for schools to support students struggling with aspects of their education or a personal crisis.

A spokeswoman for Ms O’Sullivan questioned the timing and motivation of the strike decision, hours after she offered engagement on “issues of mutual concern”, which she said should have taken place without a threat of industrial action.

The schools likely to be affected have around 150,000 students, and it is only them and their parents who would be inconvenienced, she said.

The spokeswoman said initiatives to address many of the TUI’s issues include increased security, particularly for new teachers, due to ongoing implementation of a report on the casualisation of teaching. She said there were increases this month in the take-home pay of teachers, and commitments in the Lansdowne Road Agreement to benefit all public servants.