A NEW deal for prison teachers means that for the first time jails will have the resources to provide a complete educational service for prisoners, the Teachers Union of Ireland general secretary has said.
Mr Jim Dorney welcomed the agreement between the TUI and the Department of Education on a new career structure for approximately 130 teachers who work full time and part time in the State's prisons.
It provides for a new promotion system for such teachers and major increases in allowances, particularly for supervising teachers.
He said that since they started work in 1979, teachers in prisons, who were usually working in extraordinarily difficult circumstances, could do little except stand in front of classes and teach in the traditional manner.
"The prison education service can now more effectively assist offenders achieve educational attainment ranging from improving reading and writing to securing degrees. It allows the service to cater for particular categories of offenders including sex offenders and drug and alcohol abusers."
The new agreement increases annual allowances for teachers supervising education in a prison unit fourfold from £2,495 to £9,693. It also creates additional posts, carrying - an allowance equivalent to that - of a special duties teacher in a mainstream school, to undertake a range of tasks which were rarely done systematically in the past, due to a lack of resources.
These include responsibility for exams and liaison with educational bodies; development of courses for sex offenders; liaison with other prison agencies, such as welfare and psychological services; and education on drug and alcohol addiction.
Mr Dorney welcomed the agreement as "a major breakthrough" which gave "overdue recognition to the dedicated and committed teachers in our prison service."