THE PROSPECT of industrial action by teachers over education and public service cuts increased last night as secondary teachers warned of “unprecedented challenges” in the months ahead.
The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) says a ballot on industrial action may be necessary. Never before, it claims, have teachers and the education service faced cutbacks on the scale proposed for the budget.
A significant minority group within the ASTI is already campaigning for the union to take militant action in response to the cutbacks.
In a special bulletin to members later this week, the ASTI’s general secretary, John White, and union president Joe Moran, will emphasise the need for unity of purpose among members of the ASTI, the four teacher unions and the broader union movement.
They caution against any unilateral action by the ASTI. “A go it alone policy by any group is easily picked off by the Government; the example of the pharmacists is a clear case in point,’’ they tell members.
Sources within the ASTI say that a vote for industrial action appears likely unless the forthcoming talks between the Government and the education partners see what one called “major progress in reversing the attack on teachers and the public service’’.
The four teacher unions – the ASTI, the Irish National Teachers Organisation, the Teachers’ Union of Ireland and the Irish Federation of University Teachers – are in discussions on a common platform against the cuts.
The ASTI has already responded to the budget cutbacks and the freeze on new posts of responsibility in schools.
Its plan of action includes: a ban on parent-teacher meetings and staff meetings outside of school time, non co-operation with school development planning meetings and limits on co-operation with whole-school evaluation and subject inspections.
The ASTI is also organising 18 regional meetings to gather information on the cutbacks in schools.
At a recent meeting, the four teaching unions decided that a co-ordinated response to the “attacks on education’’ was the only way to protect education from the cutbacks proposed in the McCarthy report.
The ASTI says that the implementation of the report would have devastating effects in the education service, which should be “the avenue to the creation of the knowledge society leading us out of recession”.
The report proposed cuts totalling over €114 million for second-level schools and total education cuts of over €745 million.
The McCarthy report was also highly critical of the common practice of closing schools for in-service training and school planning.
The report said that the “current teacher contract appears unduly restrictive, and this means that activities such as teacher in-service development and school planning have tended to erode the school year”.
Last month, Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe ruled out major changes in the teacher contract, despite the criticisms in the McCarthy report.
Under the current public service embargo, vacancies can be filled in education, but posts of responsibility in schools cannot be filled.
Teacher unions say that this will effectively remove the middle management structure in schools, leading to cuts in services and supports for pupils.
