Sir, – I strongly suggest that a contingent of Irish education officials, the Minister for Education and the leadership of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) head over to the UK to see how hard our British colleagues are forced to work and for a fraction of the pay, holidays and conditions of Irish teachers. The majority of Irish secondary teachers wouldn’t last a day in that system in terms of the level of creativity, effort and imagination required to make it as a teacher there.
I am not advocating we follow the same route, but it would be nice if Irish teachers displayed a broader appreciation of how good they have had it and became more proactive in delivering reforms which would benefit our students holistically, such as longer class time (which would deliver more rounded lessons), a longer school year (would a month less holidays really kill us?) and a French-style approach to achievement (French students can’t progress unless they achieve a certain grade in at least six subjects).
There would be more emphasis on true student engagement and responsibility for real authentic learning.
In our present system, only teachers benefit. Sadly, it is not surprising that no vision has ever been presented by the teachers’ unions to deliver a better system to our students.
It is equally unsurprising that our teachers share the Irish peculiarity of failing to accept simple basic financial reality.
We simply can’t go back to the unsustainable public sector wage levels of pre-2008 and all of us have to swallow that pill.
– Yours, etc,
MARY WHITE
Meelick,
Co Clare.
Sir, – I sympathise with teachers on the hardship they have to face daily, and as someone who faced my own share of difficulty in the recession when pay restrictions on new teachers were imposed, I find the “equal pay for equal work” placards disingenuous.
I have to educate my secondary-school children to the fact that their teachers get different pay for the same work based on the length of service and qualification.
I have to tell them that the pay is not even based on the best teachers being paid more and the worst teachers being retrained or removed.
I would like to support the teachers who teach my children but those who carry this equal pay for equal work soundbite are demeaning themselves and I am disappointed in them.
They all deserve more pay but this dispute damages them more than endears them to parents and taxpayers who are struggling back from the crash.
– Yours, etc,
DAVID DOYLE
Goatstown,
Dublin 14.