Promotions ban move ‘piecemeal, insufficient’
The announcement by the Education Minister at the Teacher’s Union of Ireland (TUI) annual congress that some posts could be reinstated where schools were hit by high numbers of middle management teachers retiring since the promotions ban took effect a year ago. But with little detail of how the scheme will work when it comes into place next September, after hundreds more primary and second level teachers are expected to retire, union leaders described it as simply patching up huge holes in schools’ management structures. The posts which cannot be filled include roles as year heads, co-ordinators of programmes for pupils with special needs or from disadvantaged homes.
The posts attract allowances of €8,520 and €3,769 on top of a teachers’ salary, with second-level assistant principals also given reduced teaching hours.
TUI president Don Ryan said his union’s directive, in place for the last month in objection to the moratorium, will not be lifted as a result. A similar ban in place for members of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) means holders of these special duties and assistant principals posts in all second-level schools cannot take over more important duties which they had been doing to March 8.
“Minister, you have announced a token alleviation of the moratorium, but in many cases the roof has already caved in, and you are now trying to prop it up with matchsticks,” Mr Ryan said.
ASTI general secretary John White said discipline will decline and the care of pupils will be eroded at a significant number of schools where he expects another 1,000 teachers to retire in the summer.
“Discipline will decline, the care of our pupils will be eroded, the administration of schools will be impossible,” he said, calling on the minister urgently to tell schools the moratorium will be lifted to avoid irretrievable damage to pupils.
Ms Coughlan told reporters she will decide next week what will be done after considering what impact retirements are likely to have on schools next September. Talks between her officials and the Department of Finance were initiated by her predecessor Batt O’Keeffe earlier this year in recognition of the difficulties the promotion ban is causing.
But, with the likelihood that it will be mostly second level schools who may be given some exemption from the moratorium, primary teachers reacted angrily to the development.
Irish National Teachers’ Organisation executive member John Boyle, a principal in south Dublin, described anything but a complete lifting of the ban as a breach of faith by the Government. “The majority of our 3,300 primary schools, where the principal teaches all day are being left high and dry. If someone retires from one of these schools, the principal is left with very little support in the management of the school and that may also impact on the principal’s pupil.”
