Principals get €2,500 for keeping schools open during pay row

SECONDARY school principals and their deputies will receive €2,500 each for keeping schools open during the year-long supervision crisis caused by the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland pay dispute.

The payments, totalling €2.6 million, will be outlined to schools by the Department of Education this week. However, principals say they are insufficient. National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals director Mary McGlynn said the payment does not fully recognise the extra work and stress endured by members forced to manage the supervision crisis.

Principals face another headache this summer because the department has cut the allocation of part-time teachers to fill concessionary posts. The department announced yesterday it has reduced the number of allocations - for teaching minority subjects or filling in for retired or absent teachers - from 1,000 last year to 700 this autumn.

Teachers say the move will result in:

Bigger class sizes.

Less minority subjects being taught.

Higher and ordinary level students being taught in the same class.

Because the posts are not full-time, around 500 teachers could be affected, of whom up to half could be left without work in September.

ASTI deputy general secretary John White said hundreds of schools preparing next year’s timetables will have to let long-standing part-time staff go. “This will also have a huge effect on students. It means minority subjects which the Government are trying to promote will be at risk in many schools,” he said.

“It could also mean larger classes because higher and ordinary level students will have to be taught together,” Mr White said. The Department of Education said teacher numbers at second level will actually increase by 300 in the next school year.

“The improvement in pupil-teacher ratio in the last six years should mean schools have less need for concessionary teaching posts. Such concessions should only be needed in exceptional cases,” a spokesperson said.

The National Congress of Catholic Secondary Schools Parent Associations said the Government was always juggling around the figures.

“They’re talking about having a wider choice of subjects but they’re taking away the teachers to give us that diversity. Our pupil-teacher ratio is one of the worst in Europe at second level already, without fewer staff,” said spokesperson Barbara Johnston.

Fine Gael education spokesperson Olwyn Enright said teaching of chemistry and physics would be directly affected, despite the Government’s efforts to increase the number of schools teaching the subjects.

Labour education spokesperson Jan O’Sullivan said that, as minority subjects disappear, class sizes will swell in the more popular disciplines.