Sir, – As the principal of a mainstream secondary school may I please rally in support of my special school principal and deputy principal colleagues who are, in effect, paid less for their work than their mainstream colleagues. How so? Due to fact that the system of calculating allowances is based on an out of date, not fit for purpose system. Their management allowance is based solely on the number of teachers in their school. Thus, you might have an eight-classroom special school with eight teachers and 28 SNAs teaching and caring for students with a range of additional needs.
However, the SNAs are not considered as personnel in need of any management. Thus, they are paid on the basis that they provide management and leadership for eight people, rather than 36. A mainstream colleague managing an eight-teacher school with no SNAs would be paid the same allowance. Fair? No.
It is time that this situation was remedied. And while we’re at it, if we can pay additional allowances to teachers working in Gaeltacht areas or on the islands, let’s pay an additional allowance to our special school teacher and SNA colleagues to reflect the value of their work and to encourage others to consider it as a career path.
– Yours, etc,
PATRICK McCORMACK,
Principal, St Paul’s CBS
Secondary School,
North Brunswick Street,
Dublin 7.