TUI conference: The TUI has condemned the "undemocratic" composition of comprehensive school boards of management.
The Catholic hierarchy and the Church of Ireland have raised objections to a Department of Education proposal which aims to ensure that there is parent and teacher representation on comprehensive school management boards, the TUI annual congress heard yesterday.
Mr Derek Dunne, TUI president, said that it was hard to believe that there was still no such representation in "an era of partnership". Mr Dunne said that draft proposals had been forwarded by the Department 18 months ago to the TUI, which it had accepted.
However, the Department had recently told the union that the two church bodies had queried the meaning of the word "patron" under the 1998 Education Act. The TUI has told the Department that it is not prepared to countenance any further delays, and had proposed that any legal uncertainties be resolved later "in the best interests of all involved".
"The current situation implies that teachers and parents should not have an input to the steering body of a comprehensive school. This is unacceptable," the union president said. "The recent Your Education System (YES) meetings highlighted the need for partnership, consensus and debate between all interested parties in Irish education. There is little point in such forums if teachers and parents are denied input to the running of their school."
The TUI congress also called on the Department to speed up the updating of computer facilities in schools. Providing schools with broadband Internet access, as had been recently announced by Government as part of an €18 million initiative, was similar to giving "chalk but no blackboards" when computer facilities weren't up to scratch, the TUI president said.
A recent OECD report had shown that Ireland was below average in terms of the ratio of students to computers. The OECD average was one computer to every nine students, while the Irish ratio was one to 13. This may explain the dwindling number of students pursuing information technology (IT) courses at third level, the union said.
The OECD survey also showed that Irish schools experienced "above average difficulties" in hiring IT teachers with qualifications. This was "clearly due" to the lack of professional development and training opportunities in the area, the TUI said. It urged that additional investment be made by the Government to raise the student/computer ratio level in Irish schools.