SCHOOL PRINCIPALS and boards of management will have a key role in new procedures on the suspension and dismissal of teachers.
The new rules, agreed by the department and the teacher unions and due to be formally finalised on Monday, should make it easier for schools to address underperformance by teachers. At present, only a handful of the 50,000 teachers in the State are suspended or dismissed every year. The Department of Education has been pressing for the new rules for more than a decade.
Under the new procedures, the school can move to suspend or dismiss the teacher after a lengthy process involving the principal, the board of management and inspectors from the department.
The principal will have much more sweeping powers under the new arrangements. Any move towards suspension is triggered in the first instance by the principal while the board can impose a wide range of sanctions up to and including dismissal.
However, teacher unions stress that a teacher can opt for a review by a Department of Education inspector at any stage in the process.
The procedure's key stages are:
• the school principal will draw up an improvement plan for an underperforming teacher, specifying "the perceived deficiencies" of the teacher and set out the supports available;
• the principal will report - normally after a three-month period - to the board of management;
• if the board decides further action is required, it will request the Department of Education inspectors to review the teacher's work in class. The board can decide to proceed to a full disciplinary hearing at which the teacher can make his/her case;
• if it is decided to take disciplinary action, the board can avail of a wide range of sanctions including deferral or withdrawal of an increment, suspension with or without pay and dismissal.
The new rules say that any concerns raised by parents about the performance of teachers should be investigated by the principal who will decide whether action is required. If the principal triggers the new procedures, the parent will be informed of the final outcome of the process.
The new rules will, for the first time, apply to all teachers in primary, secondary, vocational, community and comprehensive schools. They replace a wide variety of rules for each teaching sector.
Unions have expressed concern about the impact of the new rules giving a key role to the principal particularly in smaller schools where strained personal relations could be a factor. The unions are also concerned that a principal is not always qualified to assess the work of a teacher in a particular subject.
