Teachers urged to end ‘them and us’ attitudes towards parents

TEACHERS must take down barriers around schools to allow parents more involvement, an expert said yesterday.

Seamus O’Brien, senior education consultant at Marino Institute of Education, said students could see education in a different light if their parents were allowed more input on school policies.

“There’s a certain amount of partnership at primary level because parents are in school more often with younger children, who only have one teacher every year. But at second level, schools often operate behind barriers and there is a ‘them and us’ situation. Teachers and principals often dominate but we must encourage them to hear other points of view,” he said.

The Marino Institute has been involved in a pilot partnership project at 15 primary and second-level schools over the past 18 months. The project saw parents and students working with staff to develop policies on issues such as bullying.

Mr O’Brien said the spirit of partnership in schools, which is encouraged in the Education Act 1998, was hampered by poor industrial relations, particularly at second level, in recent years.

Meanwhile, the 180-member central executive council of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) meets on Saturday to discuss a matter rooted in the union’s bitter pay dispute.

The council is being asked to reverse last month’s decision by the 23-member standing committee to pay a €76,000 legal bill of Bernard Lynch. He had brought proceedings against the ASTI after he was barred from meetings for allegedly disrupting one.