Delegates at the INTO congress in Ennis have deplored the Department of Education and Science's failure to provide proper support for school boards of management in coping with assaults on teachers.
Mr Peter Mullan, from south Dublin, welcomed last September's departmental circular on the issue. "At long last the Department has expressed concern at the increase in the incidence of assaults on staff in primary schools. Violence in the workplace is increasing and teachers and other school staff are at risk of higher levels of verbal abuse, threats, assaults and other forms of intimidation."
He recognised that the preventative measures outlined in the circular and the steps to be followed in the event of an assault were "worthy".
"However, where the circular is seriously flawed is in the total failure of the Department to provide any real supports for boards of management and teachers."
For example, it identified the difficulties teachers had trying to conduct interviews with parents at the classroom door while supervising a class at the same time, he said. Yet it "fails to recognise that most schools have teaching principals; most do not have a full-time secretary. It fails to make any commitment on behalf of the Department to provide schools with an interview room."
By urging schools to take measures without providing any finance for them, the Department was "putting its head in the sand. Without proper financing, schools regrettably will be able to do little more than lock all doors and batten down the hatches, creating a fortress-like mentality," he said.
To improve security in schools, what was needed was "full time ancillary staff, time free from teaching duties for principals, and modern security systems that include closed circuit TV, buzzers and perhaps in some cases panic buttons".
Mr Declan Kellegher of the INTO executive said he had been "greatly grieved" to hear a representative of the National Parents' Council (Primary) "saying on national radio that we as a body are trying to hype up the problem of assaults".
He said assaults were "a very legitimate concern" for teachers. "Schools are extremely vulnerable and open places. At this point in the evolution of our State they can no longer be left as they are."
He urged that "every school should have an employee - be it secretary or caretaker - who can monitor visitors to the building. "