Union leaders claim programme for new teachers waters down existing help

REVISED supports for new teachers have been described by a union leader as watering down existing help to save Government funding.

Tánaiste and Education Minister Mary Coughlan revealed details of an induction programme for newly qualified primary and second level teachers from the next school year, aimed at helping them overcome challenges and problems and to adjust to the classroom dynamic. It will give them 20 hours of professional support and further development in out-of-school settings, beginning for all new primary teachers in September and as soon as possible in the new school year for newly-qualified second level teachers.

Announcing the system at the MacGill Summer School in her native Donegal, Ms Coughlan acknowledged that new teachers have been let down in the past by efforts to help them move from training and qualification into the classroom.

“It’s slightly unfair that a young person must have a probation period where they have an inspection as opposed to support,” she said.

“I’m now changing the support mechanism made available to those young teachers. It will address the needs of the teachers and concerns of the parents that we need teachers of the highest calibre,” the Tánaiste said.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation accused her of watering down existing supports developed over years for new members of the profession, likening it to turning porridge into gruel. It suggested the proposals had more to do with staffing cuts in her department’s inspectorate and financial restraints than with developing an effective system of induction.

“Instead of providing meaningful supports like mentors in schools, locally-based induction activities and reduced teaching time like in other countries, the minister is expecting young teachers to travel long distances after school to courses,” said INTO deputy general secretary Noel Ward. “This fails to take account of inadequate or non-existent public transport in most parts of the country and the financial realities of those starting work for the first time. These proposals will put further pressure on starting teachers.”

The union suggested a better move would have been to extend a pilot project which has allowed thousands of newly qualified teachers to take training courses or be mentored by other teachers for up to eight days a year since 2002, while their schools are given the cost of a substitute to cover their absence.