Sir, – I have been teaching since 1985 and have seen the profession go from strength to strength – with no small part of this attributable to the highly qualified cohort of young teachers who play a vital role in every school. These excellent people contribute to school life in a way that makes a “Croke Park hour” both redundant and insulting, yet they are paid less. There is not a single member of staff in any school who does not work one extra hour per week.
As a music teacher and special educational needs co-ordinator in my school, I work on average two extra hours per day, and this is probably more than ever before as we come out of the most devastating time in recent educational history in terms of lack of resources.
What the wider public must understand is that schools have always depended on this extra input from staff on a goodwill basis and the thriving extra-curricular programmes in schools attest to this.
Extra classes in the evenings, pastoral care meetings, curriculum development, various capacity building activities for students, all form an essential part of student support and are largely voluntary.
The real problem was caused when the Government tried to quantify this goodwill and lock us into productivity measures that were so restrictive as to be counterproductive. – Yours, etc,
MARY RYAN,
Ardee Community School,
Ardee, Co Louth.
Sir, – One hour a week is called a Croke Park hour. Endless hours a week meeting parents, planning, preparing lessons, researching, correcting and dealing with pupils count as zero hours. – Yours, etc,
CAITRIONA NIC ÉINRÍ,
Rathgar, Dublin 6.