Striving to do better for our students

TODAY, 17,000 teachers who are members of the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland begin industrial action.

This action involves teachers withdrawing from formal meetings which take place outside of school hours, non-cooperation with in-service training for the new junior cycle framework, and a refusal to undertake duties arising from middle management posts which are vacant due to a government moratorium.

While the industrial action is designed to minimise any impact on students’ education, it is regrettable that we have been forced to cause disruption to the normal operation of schools in order to demonstrate to the Government the seriousness of our concerns. Industrial action is not something teachers desire, but we have taken every opportunity up to now to make clear to the Government the depth of feeling amongst teachers about what is going on in our second-level schools.

In September, ASTI members voted to reject the Haddington Road Agreement on public service pay by a 2:1 majority. The rationale for this rejection is complex. For many teachers, the reasons for voting no extend well beyond what is contained in the agreement. Teachers are acutely aware of the country’s economic situation and of the hardship suffered by so many individuals and families. As teachers we interact with children and parents on a daily basis.

In such uncertain and difficult times we try to provide to our students a sense of security and hope. All of the students in our classrooms will exit the education system within the next few years and face the consequences of a fiscal mess they didn’t create. We recognise the importance of educating for resilience in today’s world. So why do teachers feel they have to take industrial action now?

The education cuts have pierced the very heart of the Irish second-level education system. Prior to the economic crisis, Ireland was investing less of its wealth in second-level students than most other OECD countries.

For example, the OECD report Education at a Glance 2008 showed Ireland coming 27th out of 29 countries in terms of the amount of national wealth (GDP per capita) invested in each second-level student. What this tells us, is that during the boom years, second-level schools were struggling to meet the needs of their students due to lack of adequate resources. Since 2009 these struggling schools have endured cuts to teacher numbers, specialist posts and services, and funding.

WHEN the first round of education cuts was announced in Oct 2008 it was met with a public outcry. Within days up to 12,000 teachers and parents demonstrated outside Dáil Éireann. Weeks later, on a cold Saturday afternoon in December, 50,000 parents and teachers took to the streets to march against education cuts. Many thousands more participated in Irish Congress of Trade Union marches demanding a better, fairer way of dealing with the economic crisis.

However, nearly five years after the first round of education cuts, there is a sense amongst ASTI members that education is seen as a soft touch when it comes to austerity. While school communities continue to express outrage at ongoing attacks to education services, they also continue to do whatever they can to compensate for the damage. Parents, teachers, and school managers work harder, fundraise more, and use whatever voluntary and community resources they have at their disposal to protect children and young people as best they can from the latest round of cuts.

Meanwhile, teachers’ pay has been cut, duties and responsibilities have increased significantly, and younger teachers — who cannot find decent work — have been placed on an inequitable salary scale. On top of all this, teachers entered into and delivered on the Croke Park Agreement only to have the Government breach it. The sense of distrust of Government amongst teachers is palpable.

Today’s action is about all of the above: The dismantling of young people’s education, the excessive burden placed on teachers to cover over the cracks caused by education cuts, increased workload and bureaucracy at a time when teachers need to focus more on their students, and — of course — the belief amongst teachers that, having acted in good faith, they have been duped and will be again.

Despite all this, we recognise that talks between the ASTI and the Government are the only way to resolve this dispute. We believe an appropriate talks process has the potential to result in an outcome which is acceptable to the ASTI and to the Government and which ultimately protects our young people’s education at this most difficult time.

* Sally Maguire is president of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland