Seán Flynn, Education Editor
Inspectors in the Department of Education will this week compile a report on schools that broke up early for Christmas.
It is still unclear, however, whether teachers found to be in breach of the common school year will lose the forthcoming benchmarking payments.
The Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, has said that all teachers who failed to report for work on December 23rd last will lose the 10 per cent benchmarking award due next week.
But it is not clear if the report from the inspectorate has identified any schools which were closed on the day, in breach of the benchmarking deal.
The inspectorate, which visited schools in virtually every county in the State on December 23rd, did find some which were closed. But it is thought virtually all of these were covered by the various exemptions in the agreement on the common school year. These allow special concessions for minority religions, boarding schools and some other schools.
The teaching unions have reacted with fury to the Minister's threat on benchmarking. They say individual teachers must not be penalised, as it is boards of management and trustees who decide on school opening hours.
There is widespread scepticism across the teaching unions about Mr Dempsey's threat. One official said: "It is just not going to happen. The idea that the Department will identify small groups of teachers and deduct them the benchmarking money is simply not on."
Mr Dempsey has said that teachers in schools which broke for holidays before December 23rd would lose their benchmarking pay awards. He said closing schools before that date was a breach of the Sustaining Progress pay agreement.
Schools are bracing themselves for a further round of inspections tomorrow when schools are due to reopen under the terms of the agreement on the common school year. One teaching union official said there is nothing in the agreement which precludes, for example, schools holding staff meetings tomorrow, provided the school is open. The Department, however, would like to see all schools open and no disruption to class contact time for pupils tomorrow.
Over 40,000 teachers will receive a total of 21 per cent from the national pay deal, Sustaining Progress and the benchmarking process.