Asti conference: The "heavy-handed" pursuit of young students in their schools by gardaí is not the way to implement the law, and should be ended immediately, acting general secretary of the Asti, John White told the union's conference in Cork yesterday.
"Freedom under the law is the essence of democracy, but when that law is enforced in a heavy-handed manner it brings the law into disrepute," he said to a round of applause.
"The promotion of tolerance and respect for diversity is at the heart of what we do as teachers . . . we call for the immediate ending of such irruptions into our schools." In a wide-ranging speech in which he called for the Asti to move on from its past "internal dissension", Mr White said teachers "deserve everything we have obtained despite the best efforts of the stockbroker economists, certain politicians and right-wing commentators who used every opportunity to try to deprive us of this money."
But he warned that his union would use "every means at its disposal" to preserve a scheme which allows teachers to retire early.
The teacher has to catch the attention and the interest of a different group of up to 30 pupils up to eight times a day, with no respite once the school bell rings for class, Mr White said.
"Increasingly, there are pupils with behavioural problems in mainstream classes which means that the teacher has to be fully attentive at all times," he said.
"Such relentless activity means that second-level teaching is extremely stressful and this stress often manifests itself medically. However, there is also a kind of continuous stress which may not manifest itself medically, but is extremely debilitating."
This was something which was recognised through the provision of early retirement schemes, which were a "lifeline" to hundreds of Asti members, he said.
"Sacking teachers as an alternative to dignified retirement is simply outrageous," he said.
"We will use every means at our disposal to preserve this scheme from which over a thousand of our members have thus far benefited." One of the biggest sources of demoralisation of teachers is persistent low-level disruption in the classroom - something which can only be eliminated when management and, above all, parents assert the rights of the majority of pupils, Mr White also claimed.
"It is unacceptable that we should have to do our work in situations where we are disrupted, but more worryingly from the parents' point of view, one or two disruptive pupils in a class can prevent the great majority of pupils from receiving an education."
"I believe that the National Parents' Council should reflect on this and assist and support us when we say that the support of the school community - parents, management, teachers and pupils - is needed to ensure a harmonious environment where the process of education can proceed."
However, Mr White stressed there was a danger that the work of the recently-established taskforce on school discipline will not result in the desired "cultural change" in classrooms.
"We cannot allow this to happen. Continuation of the present levels of disruption is not an option. If the desire is there, cultural attitudes can change and we have many examples of this in our society in recent years."