Falling enrolment, job losses are key concerns for teacher unions

FEARS for teachers losing their jobs in schools with falling student numbers were discussed at a historic meeting of the two, second-level teacher unions yesterday.

The executives of the Association of Secondary Teachers’ Ireland (ASTI) and Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) held the first joint meeting in a number of years in Dublin to find ways of approaching issues of common concern.

Key among these is the Department of Education’s proposal to suspend redeployment panels for the estimated 400-plus teachers who are surplus to a school’s staff quota because of falling enrolments, or whose schools are closing, until a new scheme for accommodating them can be agreed.

The ASTI’s 17,000 members work mostly in the country’s 400 voluntary secondary schools, under the trusteeship of the religious orders. These include the staff of Seamount College in Kinvara, Co Galway, which is due to close.

The TUI represents most of the staff of the country’s 240 vocational schools and community colleges, while both unions have members in the 90 community and comprehensive schools.

Also facing imminent closure is Greendale Community School in Kilbarrack on Dublin’s northside, while a number of other second level schools with dwindling numbers face a similar fate.

In normal circumstances, teachers who are surplus to requirements are put on a redeployment panel to be moved only when a suitable vacancy arises at another school and only to a school in the same sector if they work in a voluntary secondary or vocational school. There is no procedure to redeploy community and comprehensive school staff.

The discussions between top ASTI and TUI members are another step towards a possible federation of teacher unions to unite the profession’s 55,000 members.