Teachers lose a class in junior cycle deal

Second-level teachers would have one less class a week to facilitate planning and meetings for the junior cycle system, under a new deal between unions and the Department of Education.

While this and other arrangements may address some teacher concerns about the reforms, no agreement will be signed unless 27,000 members of the two unions back them in a ballot after schools reopen in September.

There could be additional staffing costs of tens of millions of euro a year from 2017, when every full-time teacher of junior cycle students will see their timetable reduced from 33 to 32 periods a week. The extra 40 minutes is to be used for planning, feedback, and other activities, but also for meetings every year in which teachers of each subject share and discuss samples of their assessments of students’ work for a new component of the junior cycle.

These classroom-based assessments, one in each subject in second year and third year, will be based on projects or other work done as part of the junior cycle. They were a key aspect of a deal in May to resolve the dispute that saw members of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) and Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) on industrial action since April 2014, including two strikes in the past school year.

The latest arrangements were discussed by unions, the department, and school management groups in recent weeks to deal with the additional time and work required for teachers.

The unions said their executives would meet separately in late August to discuss their ballots, to take place in September, on the latest details as well as the deal reached in May. It is unclear how they will recommend members vote, but the TUI executive is backing a no vote on the recent Lansdowne Road public pay deal, and a similar recommendation is being urged by the ASTI leaders to its executive.

The latest deal proposes class contact time be reduced by 10 hours in the next school year for teachers of English, in which students first face new assessments next year, for related professional time. This time will increase to 14 hours in 2016/17, when science and business teachers will be allowed eight hours for the introduction of new courses and assessment in their subjects.

Schools can hire substitute teachers in those instances, but the changes from 2017 could require the equivalent of hundreds of extra full-time teachers to cover reduced timetables for up to 27,000 full-time and non-permanent teachers.

A spokesman for Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan said the question of whether to continue with additional substitution cover or to make an appropriate reduction to second-level pupil-teacher ratios would not be considered until the department’s 2017 budget is being decided.

Ms O’Sullivan yesterday briefed Cabinet colleagues on the deal concluded last week. She said students, parents, and guardians would get a much broader picture of the young person’s learning through the new Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement.

It will show how students perform in classroom-based assessments, as well as in the retained written exam in each subject to be marked by the State Examinations Commission in line with current practice.