The split within the ASTI has deepened with the leadership refusing to circulate a controversial document on pay policy. The row about the document comes after the union was heavily criticised for its decision to withdraw from supervision and substitution at hundreds of schools yesterday.
While it had little effect on most schools, the move was criticised by parents and another prominent teachers leader, INTO general secretary Senator Joe O'Toole.
The document, prepared by five members of the ASTI executive, outlines 13 "pitfalls" of benchmarking and says the process could lead to the industrialisation of teaching.
The ASTI's general secretary, Mr Charlie Lennon, does not want the document circulated because he believes it does not make a convincing case against the benchmarking process. However other members want it to be circulated, particularly because benchmarking will be concluded in June.
The document, seen by The Irish Times, says the following are among the drawbacks of benchmarking:
• It does not take account of the special attributes of teaching;
•It is unlikely to reward past productivity and curriculum innovation;
•It allows no negotiation on benchmarked pay and conditions;
•It does not guarantee a substantial pay rise to close the existing gap;
•It does not guarantee an across-the-board pay increase for teachers;
•It does not stipulate when majority of awards will be paid;
•It threatens to undermine existing and future salary-linked pensions and
•It threatens the long-term conditions of employment of teachers.
The Department of Education was last night pleased with the success of their contingency plans which kept the vast majority of schools in the State open.
Exaggerated predictions of chaos throughout the school system were proved to be groundless. School managers called it correctly last week when they predicted that virtually no schools would close because of the ASTI withdrawal.
The apparent success of the contingency plans may mean the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, will be in no rush to improve his existing supervision offer to teachers. This will annoy the TUI and the INTO who still believe teachers are the best people to do this work.
As for the ASTI, the union is isolated once again from the other teacher unions and the trade union movement generally. Its annual conference next month in Donegal will no doubt be a hot-tempered affair, but in reality, like every public sector union, it will have to await the publication of the benchmarking report.
While supervision/substitution was always regarded as a side-show, some ASTI members believed it could be the way to highlight the voluntary work done in schools by teachers. This encompasses drama, music, sport and debating, but this work did not become the focus of yesterday's withdrawal.
Instead most of the talk concerned the contingency plans and whether they would be effective.
The heads of the three school management bodies, Mr George O'Callaghan, Mr Michael Moriarty and Mr Seán McCann, managed with the help of Department of Education cash to keep the schools open. Logistically this was a massive feat and it means the school managers could have their hand strengthened when they go looking for future resources from the Department.
While many schools were tense yesterday and some supervisors talked of being coralled away from teachers, the atmosphere in many schools was more pleasant than normal. One reason was teachers had more free time because they were not being called on to do supervision or take extra classes in place of a colleague.
"It was the first time in many months I got to have a full coffee break and a full lunch hour," remarked one teacher. "I would love to see this arrangement continue," he added.
In many schools, though, the staff room remained off limits to the new recruits, with school management happy not to push the issue. "Technically all members of staff should be allowed to use the facilities, but nobody was going to go to war over that issue," remarked one principal who wished to remain anonymous.
The next question is whether the recruits will become a permanent feature of the schools system. If the ASTI remains outside the negotiation process they could acquire "squatters' rights", one education source said yesterday. If the non-teachers end up doing the work for more than a year, for instance, it would be hard for school managers to then ask them to leave.
Many ASTI members say there is no further mileage in the supervision question and believe the union should set about preparing its strategy for the publication of the benchmarking report.