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.