The closure of hundreds of second-level schools now looks likely with the ASTI issuing four new demands for solving the supervision dispute which significantly exceed what has been agreed to date.
The four improvements it is seeking from the Government were described by other education partners last night as "well beyond anything that has even been comprehended so far". The union is due to withdraw from supervision on March 4th.
The union called for the following:
a minimum annual payment for supervision of €2,500;
the offer to be made pensionable;
that it be made available to existing pensioners in compensation for having done supervision for free over many years;
a guarantee that all supervision will be done within 22 teaching hours in the week.
The ASTI says that if the four conditions are met, it will recommend the supervision package to its members.
The conditions were harshly criticised last night by education sources. "This is setting the bar so high nobody will be able to jump it," said one.
The Minister for Education, Dr Woods, is expected to hold talks next week with all three unions. But the latest demands from the ASTI make the chances of success in these talks remote.
Dr Woods would not comment in detail on the ASTI demands, but said he was still looking foward to meeting the three unions next week.
At present there is provision for a minimum payment of €1,200 a year. Pensionability has been ruled out and the idea of confining it to 22 teaching hours a week is regarded as unacceptable by the Department of Education.
The head of the school managers body, the Joint Managerial Body, Mr George O'Callaghan, said he was disappointed at the four conditions laid down by the ASTI. "It makes the chances of a resolution far more difficult," he said.
However, the union's general secretary, Mr Charlie Lennon, defended the demands and said the Government had to find some solution. "We will go into the talks and do what we can. We have outlined these demands ahead of the meetings because there is no point in just talking for talking's sake."
The union's standing committee has also decided to seek payment of the €2,222 offered by the Labour Court last year. But this was tied in with participation in the benchmarking body, and the chances of it being paid are slim.
The union also issued the text of the directive it plans to send to members next week.
While this allows principals to organise supervision and substitution, its instructions to part-time teachers were criticised by the Joint Managerial Body.
The directive says part-timers may substitute for absent colleagues where the substitution is paid for by existing Department of Education schemes. However, part-timers may not provide substitution cover for "uncertified sick leave or for absences for approved school activities".
Mr O'Callaghan said this would make life in schools from March 4th "a lot more difficult"."We would have welcomed a more liberal approach to part time teachers than that."