Dempsey may cut pay over science row

THOUSANDS of second-level teachers could have pay increases cancelled because of their union’s order not to teach a new science course.

The Department of Education said last night it is considering the impact of the directive by the 17,000 member Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) in the context of social partnership commitments.

The ASTI standing committee has told science teacher members not to instruct the new Junior Certificate syllabus because school labs are not safe enough for students to do the required experiments.

The country’s 45,000 school teachers already signed up to a standardised school year and changes to parent-teacher meetings in return for benchmarking increases of 13% under the Sustaining Progress partnership deal.

But officials in Education Minister Noel Dempsey’s department are reviewing the deal, which includes a non-strike clause for all public servants.

“The ASTI directive is being examined within the department, having regard to the implications for Sustaining Progress,” a Department of Education spokesperson said.

ASTI president Pat Cahill warned of huge unrest among teachers if their pay was affected by what he said was a non-confrontational issue.

“The minister has given every school the option of continuing with the old course so we are not involved in any industrial action,” he said.

He said ASTI members have barely forgotten the anger felt when former Education Minister Michael Woods docked their pay at the height of the union’s pay dispute with the Government almost three years ago.

“If another minister did something similar there would be uproar, the whole public service should be up in arms if something like that happened,” he said.

The latest row followed a call by employers’ body IBEC on the Government to withhold the payment of benchmarking awards to teachers who follow the ASTI directive.

Meanwhile, as the country’s primary schools welcomed more than 50,000 new pupils yesterday morning, one angry school principal blamed Government cutbacks for having to turn away three disabled children, as they were not provided with Special Needs Assistants.

“We can’t meet their needs without the resources, this is all about cutbacks and the lack of money in the department,” said Bryan O’Reilly, of Scoil Náisiúnta Mhuire, Newbridge, Co Kildare.

The Irish National Teachers Organisation has called for an overhaul of the way applications are processed for thousands of children who need extra resources in school.