ASTI drop ban on new science course

THE Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland has lifted its ban on a new Junior Certificate science course, after being told it breached the social partnership agreement.

The union issued the directive in August because it feared poorly equipped laboratories posed health and safety risks. The revised syllabus requires students to do around 30 experiments themselves, under the supervision of their teachers.

Last night, the Minister for Education Noel Dempsey welcomed the report of the arbitration board.

“It was a very important decision in the context of securing ongoing change and sustaining progress,” he said.

“I believe that this decision is in the best interests of students, teachers and schools so that there is no impediment to the maximum possible take-up of the new syllabus in the current year,” the Minister said.

Minister Dempsey had earlier made clear that he considered the ban a form of industrial action, in breach of the Sustaining Progress agreement.

This would have meant ASTI members losing out on the next phase of 13% pay increases due to teachers under benchmarking, half of which is due to be paid next January.

In a case closely watched by all public service unions, the independent Teachers Arbitration Board heard arguments from the union and the Department of Education last week.

Yesterday, its report said the ASTI failed to use the appropriate dispute resolution machinery. It added the introduction of the science syllabus is covered by Sustaining Progress as the type of change that must be continued by teachers.

The board, chaired by Senior Counsel Gerry Durkan, concluded that the ASTI ban constituted industrial action precluded by the agreement, because it prevented changes to the way some members would be required to do their work.

However, the board recognised that the directive arose from genuine concerns among science teachers that the introduction of the new syllabus last month would have been unwise.

ASTI president Pat Cahill said that while it is withdrawing the directive, the union will continue its campaign for adequate science facilities in schools.

“We strongly support the new syllabus but, as a trade union, we have a duty to raise serious health and safety concerns which may put our members and their students at risk,” he said.

“It is also our view that it’s socially divisive that some schools will not have the necessary laboratory facilities in order to introduce this course,” Cahill said. The ASTI will be pushing Mr Dempsey for the implementation of the essential recommendations of last year’s Task Force on Physical Sciences report.