School managers are powerless to shut down an online teacher rating website, ratemyteachers.ie, which now claims to have posted more than 420,000 ratings on 35,000 teachers, it has emerged.
In his report to the Joint Managerial Body/Association of Management of Catholic Secondary Schools conference in Killarney yesterday, general secretary George O'Callaghan said it had sought legal advice on what action might be taken to protect schools and staff from "potentially libellous comment".
"Unfortunately, as the [ site] is hosted from the USA, there seems to be little that can be done to shut it down," he stated in his report. "The Data Protection Commission has also indicated that the site is outside of its jurisdiction."
While schools can employ software to block access to the site on school computers, individuals can access the site from elsewhere, Mr O'Callaghan acknowledged. The website lists schools which do so, he added. The JMB has not asked the Government to take action against the website, for many of the same reasons. However, individuals can take legal action for defamation against the operator or internet service provider, he said.
Minister for Education Mary Hanafin said she was committed to bringing funding levels for voluntary secondary schools in the free education scheme into line with other types of schools over the next few budgets.
She was also aware that certain schools were taking more than their share of children with special needs and asked delegates "to please make sure that you are welcoming children with special needs".
Contrary to what many schools believed, Ms Hanafin said that last year, two-thirds of appeals against exclusion under section 29 of the Education Act found in favour of the school, not the student.
Mr O'Callaghan also referred to the findings of a recent JMB survey, revealed in The Irish Times earlier this week, which showed that principals were working up to a 70-hour week. Almost two-thirds spent between one and three hours every week on at least 28 different administrative tasks, the survey said.
Schools experienced "wide variations" in local authority charges, as well as high insurance and other charges, he added.
He called for the abolition of all examination fees at second-level.