Teachers await fresh proposals to end strike

Fresh proposals to end a teaching strike were not expected until Wednesday, teachers’ representatives claimed today.

Movilla High School staff have been out of the classroom since last Monday after a pupil allegedly assaulted a teacher and colleagues were docked pay after refusing to tutor the child.

A total of 25 members of union NASUWT have taken industrial action at the Newtownards school in Co Down.

Teachers have asked for the pupil to be removed from the school or taught in isolation. The education authorities have refused.

NASUWT representative Peter Scott said: “Nothing has transpired that has changed the situation. I understand we might be looking at Wednesday before the South Eastern Education and Library Board will be coming forward with anything, but things can obviously change.

“This is a situation that is becoming intolerable.

“We can’t have the education of 540 children disrupted in this way for much longer.”

The union met Children’s Commissioner Patricia Lewsley this afternoon over comments which it branded concerning.

Stepping into the dispute and offering to mount an investigation if the strike was called off, the Commissioner said the strike was “tantamount to the corporate abuse of children’s rights”.

She added she was aware of the detailed circumstances of the incident involving the boy at the centre of the dispute and said she was concerned teachers were using a minor episode to create a scare story.

“This individual child’s rights, and the rights of every child at that school are being used as bargaining chips,” she said.

The Education Board has claimed the union rejected offers made and was demanding the pupil be taught in total isolation from other pupils and teachers in the school or that the particular pupil is requested to leave the school.

Education Minister Caitriona Ruane called on employers and unions to keep talking to resolve the dispute.