THE Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) has proposed that the Education Bill should include provision for "temporary withdrawal units and tuition centres" for disruptive students.
The ASTI proposes the dropping of the proposed regional education boards and 26 other amendments to the Bill. The association's general secretary, Mr Charlie Lennon, said this was vital to "ensure that badly needed funds for schools are not diverted into bureaucratic structures but are instead channelled into improving the staffing, funding and facilities which are so sadly lacking at present".
The ASTI is looking for a statutory commitment to appropriate levels of school funding and changes in the proposed appeals structure, "which threatens to undermine the operation of schools".
It is also demanding the introduction of a teaching council to oversee teachers' qualifications and training and for the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment to be put on a statutory basis.
Mr Lennon said there was no definition of a teacher in the Bill. It gave "very little support to the professional role of teachers, in many ways diminishing it".
Among the amendments proposed by the ASTI are the scrapping of a clause giving school inspectors "all such powers as are necessary or expedient for the purpose of performing his or her functions". The association says this suggests powers that are "excessive, unworkable and unnecessary".
It also wants the replacement of the clause which would allow a student over 16 to appeal any decision which "materially affects" his or her education to an education board. It calls this "potentially most damaging" to the operation of schools