Teachers ‘could be jailed’ if they oppose inspection

Teachers have vowed to oppose legal changes which they say could send them to jail if they challenge a school inspector.

Under a planned amendment to the Education Act, anyone who impedes the work of a Department of Education inspector could be guilty of an offence.

The penalties laid out in the Education and Training Boards Bill are for fines of up to €100,000 and five years in jail, or both.

Teachers’ Union of Ireland general secretary John MacGabhann said the union opposed any move to criminalise teachers. He said the department had told TUI officials the intention was to use the provision in cases where fraudulent school and college returns were being investigated.

He said they had the impression from meeting Education Minister Ruairi Quinn in December that he considered the legal amendment inappropriate. But, he said, the issue remained as an addition to the bill, which was in draft form. “We favour public accountability but there needs to be appropriate accountability and this smacks of something Dickensian, it shows a lack of professional trust of teachers among inspectors.”

He said the legislation threatened to criminalise a teacher who might question an inspector’s interpretation of his or her work. Or it could mean someone who engages in robust discussion with an inspector could “serve out their career in Van Diemen’s Land”, he said.

“If it’s simply a question of cracking the whip and coming in [to schools] in the guise of a gun slinger, there will be a fractious relationship [between teachers and inspectors].”

A spokesperson for the department said the plan was to use the same approach as for any other profession that is subject to statutory inspections. She said it was likely the clause would only be used in extreme situations, where someone absolutely refused to co-operate with or went out of their way to obstruct an inspection.

TUI delegates passed a motion urging union leaders to oppose any attempt to make failure to co-operate with an inspection a criminal offence.

Earlier, teachers backed calls to ensure they are given the same legal rights as students, in light of violence and threats faced by some in their work.

Dublin City post-primary delegate Audrey Cepeda spoke about a school where teachers were expected to endure physical violence, threats, and intimidation. “I don’t think it’s right that a teacher has to take into their class a student who has physically punched them, or that a teacher who was three months pregnant had a chair dropped on her from a second-floor window and was told she still had to face that student in her classroom after.”