Schools should know about ban soon

SCHOOLS should soon be informed of a ban on appointing teachers to permanent jobs, a union leader said yesterday.

The ban, which normally applies to religious-owned voluntary secondary schools up to the start of May, has also been notified to the 300 second level schools in the vocational and community-comprehensive sectors this year.

Association of Secondary Teachers’ Ireland (ASTI) general secretary, John White, told delegates at the union’s annual convention in Sligo this was because of ongoing talks with the Department of Education about redeployment of teachers who are surplus to schools’ requirements.

As part of their acceptance of the Towards 2016 social partnership deal, teachers have committed to agreeing to a scheme allowing teachers to move from a school in one sector to a different type of school. These redeployments might arise where schools are closing or where falling student numbers mean a school has more teachers than required.

“The talks have been sequenced so we’re just dealing this year with redeployment for teachers affected by school closures” he said.

“That’s why there is no filling of permanent vacancies, but we will be trying to get that removed and hopefully letters will go out to schools in the next couple of weeks telling them to go ahead and fill vacancies,” Mr White said.

ASTI assistant general secretary Máire Mulcahy said the union had tried unsuccessfully to get commitment from management bodies in religious-run schools that teachers would be notified of their status for the following school year by April, but they will be raising it with management in other sectors. She suggested school boards should be able to give an indication much earlier because they are told of their staffing allocations around March.