Quinn to face anger at teacher congress

A second day of anger lies ahead for Education Minister Ruairi Quinn from teachers already planning withdrawal of some work practices over the Croke Park II pay proposals.

Delegates at the Teachers’ Union of Ireland annual congress, whose wider membership strongly rejected the Labour Relations Commission plan last month, will have the minister as their guest in Galway at lunchtime.

However, having already withstood heckling, red cards, and a small number of walkouts at the first two teacher union conferences, he is likely to face more angry delegates today. The TUI congress last night voted in favour of a directive that could see a ban on its third-level members setting and marking exam scripts.

It is proposed in the Croke Park II deal that payment for this work be eliminated. However, the decision means they would refuse to do it if the pay deal is accepted by the wider public services union movement on Apr 17.

TUI general secretary John MacGabhann earlier warned of the withdrawal of goodwill and voluntary work in schools and colleges as a response to constant demands for greater productivity. He made the same call as that heard at the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation congress in Cork for budget shortfalls to be met through fair and progressive taxation and not from the pockets of public servants.

Mr Quinn was shown hundreds of red cards and jeered through his speech from the normally more courteous INTO delegates, a reflection of widespread frustration at what is being asked of them in the Croke Park II plans.

The INTO leadership has made no recommendation on how its 32,000 members should vote on the deal. There were unsuccessful efforts by some of its delegates to have a discussion on potential union strategy in the event of a no vote when their ballot is counted the week after next.

The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland leadership has urged members to reject the deal, and the sentiment was clear from the reception its convention gave Mr Quinn in Wexford yesterday.

He was forced to stop mid-speech as heckles went up such as “shame on Labour”, “you’re dancing around the issues”, and even preferences for a Fianna Fáil predecessor with “bring back Batt O’Keeffe”.

While a threatened walkout failed to materialise, with fewer than a dozen delegates leaving the room, others raised placards denouncing what is happening in the education system.

Mr Quinn did announce positive initiatives yesterday, including Nov 1 being set as the date from which schools will effectively no longer be able to employ unqualified people to teach, in a move giving the Teaching Council proper regulatory powers.

He outlined plans at the ASTI convention on potential changes preventing schools from discriminating against certain groups in the enrolment process.

However, it was not a day for such initiatives to be shown much appreciation, and Mr Quinn will almost certainly face the same kind of reaction today.