Schools facing weeks of closures

Secondary schools will be closed for most of November and could close for seven days up to early December even if staff were found to cover duties being stopped by 18,000 teachers.

The prospect of the closures follows yesterday’s deliberations by the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) standing committee on how to deploy industrial action backed by four out of five members voting in the past month. The first strike date announced is Thursday, October 27, followed by six more on November 8 (Tuesday), 16 and 24 (both Thursdays), 29 (Tuesday), December 6 and 7 (Tuesday and Wednesday).

But if the dispute with Government is not resolved before the mid-term break ends on Friday, November 4, ASTI members’ withdrawal from supervision and substitution work the next Monday could lead to doors remaining closed for the following few weeks until schools have had time to hire people for the work and have them Garda-vetted.

ASTI president Ed Byrne said teachers are reluctant to take industrial action or interrupt the running of schools, but members’ democratic rejection of the Lansdowne Road Agreement (LRA) was met with an extreme and hostile reaction by the Government. “We have flagged our serious issues well in advance and remain available and committed to a resolution through talks without pre-conditions,” he said.

The groups representing school boards will meet Department of Education officials next week to discuss how they respond to the crisis, having been unable to finalise any contingencies on the supervision and substitution issue until they knew how soon and to what extent any school closures would take effect.

Education Minister Richard Bruton expressed disappointment about the ASTI decisions and the inevitable severe disruption to students and parents from the widespread school closures. His department had told the ASTI it would require around eight weeks’ notice of withdrawing from the duties to allow time to recruit and vet staff without forcing schools to close.

“It is regrettable that ASTI have decided not to co-operate with the contingency arrangements. Despite ASTI’s decision, the department and school management bodies will proceed to finalise contingency arrangements,” the minister said.

While there is precedent for having to hire in outside staff to cover supervision or teacher absences, when the ASTI withdrew from the work during a previous pay dispute in 2002, things are different this time. A backlog in Garda vetting for non-teachers working in schools means special needs assistants (SNAs) appointed to work with children who have special needs are currently waiting several weeks.

Mr Bruton said he has repeatedly offered that the department can suspend implementation of measures associated with the union’s repudiation of the LRA if ASTI suspends its directive on withdrawing from working so-called ‘Croke Park’ hours while talks take place.

A Department of Education statement said he hopes the ASTI can now engage in constructive dialogue with its officials.

“The minister emphasised that he has not and will not be setting any pre-conditions to dialogue taking place. This has previously been made clear to the ASTI leadership,” it said.

But Mr Byrne has said that any previous engagements have had Mr Bruton’s officials repeatedly tell ASTI that the only way of dealing with their issues was through the LRA.

The department statement referred to progress through talks with the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation and Teachers’ Union of Ireland, including an agreement that will see new entrants affilliated to those unions get a 15% increase in their starting salaries by January 2018.