Primary school teachers have backed away from an immediate confrontation with Minister for Education Mary Hanafin over the planned publication of school inspection reports.
Their union, the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, decided yesterday to postpone a decision to direct members not to co-operate with inspections.
The INTO conference last month decided to withdraw co-operation with school inspections until its concerns about the planned publication of the school inspection reports, due to begin next month, are resolved.
The Minister responded that she would see non-co-operation with school inspectors as industrial action and a breach of the partnership agreement, Sustaining Progress.
Continued non-co-operation could see primary teachers lose up to €1,200 in payments due under Sustaining Progress. The final 2.5 per cent pay rise is due next month.
In a statement yesterday the INTO said its central executive committee had decided in the first instance to pursue the matter through the conciliation and arbitration process, the established industrial relations machinery for dealing with disputes.
The union would seek an immediate meeting with Department of Education officials to discuss teachers' outstanding concerns about the planned publication of the reports.
"Issues of concern to teachers include the identification of individual teachers through the publication of reports, the need for a standardised approach to whole school evaluation and the demand for a fair and transparent review procedure," the union said.
"The Minister herself publicly admitted last month that teachers will be identifiable in reports."
John Carr, the union's general secretary, said that in the light of "growing industrial unrest in the country", he hoped the department and the union could positively engage to resolve the issue.
Sustaining Progress, he said, had not committed the INTO to publication of reports, but it was the union's view that school information should be made available to members of the school community, including parents.
The union's leadership is to meet again next Thursday evening to consider the matter further.
