Contracts ‘may limit options for students’

Moves to improve job security for teachers could end up limiting second-level students’ subject choices, a school management leader has warned.

The recommendation of an expert group on fixed -term and part-time teaching was welcomed by teacher unions last week.

It should see non-permanent teachers entitled to a contract of indefinite duration ) from the next school year, if they have had more than two years on fixed-term contracts in a school. The Haddington Road Agreement had seen that reduced from a four -year period to three years last year, but the two-year recommendation is likely to take effect from next autumn.

The expert group, chaired by senior counsel Peter Ward, whose report was accepted last week by Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan, also recommends schools be allowed to redeploy teachers given a contract of indefinite duration after two years if they no longer need those teaching hours in a subject.

This could arise, for example, where demand for a subject drops and the teacher can not be time-tabled to fill their contracted hours.

However, Association of Community and Comprehensive Schools general secretary Eileen Salmon said issues may still arise for management.

“A school could have 10 hours of surplus in some subjects and they can’t redeploy half a teacher’s job,” she said.

“The same school could be completely tight for hours in another subject to meet the needs of students and the curriculum, so that is where this is tying down schools,” Ms Salmon said.

She said no school wants its teachers’ incomes curtailed, but their hands are tied by staffing allocations from the Department of Education.

“That’s where the conflict arises and we don’t know if this is going to resolve the problem. The mainstream pupil-teacher ratio really ties us down, so hopefully it is extended in the budget; it would certainly improve the education system if you had a smaller PTR,” she said.

The expert group also recommended a system to allow teachers to split their employment between two schools, to help schools respond more flexibly to changing curricular demands, but such a system would only be introduced on a pilot basis at first. The report cited department figures showing that more than a third of second-level teachers and 9% in primary schools in 2013 did not have permanent jobs.

Ms O’Sullivan plans to implement the recommendations, saying they would benefit the education system as well as improving job security and stability of employment.

She has also been urged by the Joint Managerial Body, which represents around half of second-level schools, to restore the 18:1 teacher allocation levels that were replaced with a 19:1 rate in 2009.