Secondary teachers will this week ballot on plans to withdraw from co-operation with in-service training and new Department of Education programmes.
Members of the ASTI will also for the first time get an opportunity to vote on the Government's £27-per-hour offer on supervision/substitution in a ballot in early January. The 180-member ASTI Central Executive Committee (CEC) voted on Saturday to recommend that members should reject the Government offer, worth a total of about £1,000 per year to teachers.
ASTI members are expected to support non co-operation with in-service training and new Department of Education programmes or curriculum changes. Members seem ready to support this kind of low-key action but, after a very troubled pay campaign, there is little taste for anything more militant.
The ASTI has been widely criticised for its failure to allow members vote on the issue.
INTO members voted to accept the Government offer, but it was rejected by TUI members. However, INTO members will not be able to receive any payment until the offer is clarified to the satisfaction of all teaching unions.
The Government has clarified some aspects of the £27 offer and seems willing to explore the question of pensionability at a later stage but many CEC members are still unhappy. There is particular concern that the scheme discriminates against part-time teachers who earn £20 an hour when they are covering for teachers for a lengthy period.
ASTI sources were slow to predict the result of the supervision vote. "There is so much apathy out there . . . Things could go any way," said one senior member.
The weekend CEC meeting was expected to discuss whether it should submit its Labour Court submission on pay to the benchmarking pay review, but debate has now been postponed until after Christmas.
Sentiment at the meeting was still strongly against co-operation with the benchmarking, especially in the light of reports suggesting that a range of concessions, including a longer working year, are being sought by the Department of Education.
In a survey of ASTI's 17,000 members last month, more than 70 per cent wanted to give the Labour Court document to the benchmarking body.
The Minister for Education, Dr Woods, has welcomed plans by the ASTI to put the supervision offer to a vote of members.
The Government is to recruit more than 400 additional primary teachers in a new move to address the acute staff shortage. Last night Dr Woods said 440 new places would be made available on the postgraduate primary teacher training scheme. It is estimated there are several hundred untrained teachers working in the primary sector.