Sheila Nunan, incoming INTO general secretary, tells LOUISE HOLDENabout life in the 'industrial washing machine' ahead of Minister of Education Mary Coughlan's address at the union's congress
THE TWO most powerful people in Irish education are in Galway this week. Both women, both new to the job.
They step into the ring at the most fraught juncture in Irish teaching for decades. The new INTO general secretary Sheila Nunan faces the new Minister for Education Mary Coughlan in Salthill. The same minister is persona non grataat the ASTI conference down the road.
“The minister will be welcome, but I won’t apologise for the pressure we will be putting her under,” says Nunan, who has taken up her post after eight years of John Carr’s charismatic leadership.
Her grandfather was elected INTO president in 1919, and again in 1938. Like him, she takes up her role at a tumultuous chapter in Irish public life. TJ Nunan took office for the second time in the lead-up to a strike that saw Dublin teachers withdraw from schools for seven months, while other members in the country contributed towards their strike pay. Just as Carr announced his exit and Nunan began limbering up for her new post, the Government opted to renege on its most recent negotiated pay deal. A cascade of blows followed: the pension levy, the income and health levy and, finally, the budget of December 2009.
It’s been an extraordinary year for Nunan, who likens her introduction to leadership as a ride in an “industrial washing machine” that hasn’t stopped churning for over a year.
“The last time teachers had a pay cut was in the 1930s,” says Nunan. “We’ve had more executive meetings in the last 12 months than at any other time in our history.”
Now, as she finally takes up the title, it’s all change again. Nunan is prepared to welcome Coughlan but would rather she leave her new title outside the door.
“Why call it the Department of Education and Skills? Isn’t it assumed that education includes education for skills? Or is this part of a drift away from the idea of education in its broadest terms? I don’t know what the Taoiseach’s thinking is in this regard. It’s galling.”
More galling still, says Nunan, is the media response to Coughlan’s change of position. “The Farmleigh think-in say that education is the key to recovery, and yet there is media consensus that Coughlan’s move into education is a demotion. It’s highly irritating.”
Despite this bristling, Nunan doesn’t do anger as policy. She shares the national sense of anger about NAMA but, despite this, wants to be constructive about the future and hopes delegates will share this view.
She denounced the talk of bankers at last year’s congress, and hopes this year’s delegates are more constructive. One of the first jobs of any union leader, she says, is to rehabilitate the notion of unions in the public mind.
“We need to remind people of the role that unions play. Civic participation is more important now than ever. We need to cast off the old inflexible image. We have been very progressive in the INTO, and always with the needs of the children at heart. Social inclusion was driven by the demands of teachers.”
Nunan, like her predecessor, is sensitive to matters of inclusion. She worked as a visiting teacher for Traveller children and was principal of a Traveller school in Bray. “When we resist certain mechanisms in our union, it is always for a reason. Take standardised testing for example. I worked in a Travellers’ school, and I know at first hand that these tests do not serve the children well or provide a true reflection of what’s going on. Ultimately we advocate on behalf of the pupils: better school buildings, smaller classes, fairer structures.”
Over the past five years the INTO built a focused campaign around the issue of class sizes. Now the new Programme for Government, at the insistence of the Green Party, contains a guarantee on staffing levels. Is the INTO a union in search of an agenda?
“We are relieved that the revised programme contained a guarantee on staffing levels but there is pressure on the system at many levels and it’s about to get more intense.
“Over the next five years, pupil numbers are set to grow by 10,000-15,000. There is a major advocacy role for our organisation to leverage funds for the sector – per capita spending on primary education is still way below the OECD average. Pay rates will always be an issue but there is a bigger picture.”
This is the traditional refrain of the teacher unions. It’s never about money in the pockets of members – it’s always about pupil welfare. Yet INTO members have given two clear mandates for industrial action in the past six months and there appears to be an appetite for revolt.
“We have had 15 months of heightened industrial unrest,” says Nunan. “However, the worst development of the last 18 months has not been the drop in teachers’ salaries but the pillorying of the public service. We have been shocked at the level of vitriol, the portrayal of teachers’ pay and conditions, the public-private divide. It’s the tone of the national debate but it’s not reflected locally.
“The teacher is the person who shops in local shops, hairdressers, car dealerships. The idea that we are anti-recovery, that we don’t want to be part of the solution, is nonsense. The short, sharp shock that the Government is pursuing is going to damage the whole economy, not just the income of teachers.”
So what is Nunan hoping to hear from Coughlan? “This week we have an opportunity to hear the new minister set out her stall, and to see if it resonates with our priorities for the sector. We have a wonderful primary curriculum but it’s overloaded.
“Teachers need more training support in the delivery of maths and science. They also need more training in child protection. Since the publication of the Murphy and Ryan reports, this has become a big issue in our schools.”
This theme links into the patronage issue – the other hot topic in Irish education. Where does the union see its role in Batt O’Keeffe’s proposed handover of key schools into secular patronage?
“Is the model of ‘patronage’ even relevant?” Nunan asks. “The INTO has been asking this question for some time. Is it practical to have an increasing number of patrons?
“An informed national debate around the issue is required, and it is disappointing that O’Keeffe ruled that out. The conversation is only happening between the department and the Catholic archdiocese.”
Whether Coughlan will be prepared to uncouple the archdiocese from the department and open up the process remains to be seen but Nunan is confident her union will provide a welcome to her this week. She wants to engage with the new educational realities positively.
“We have had enough talk of the damage the bankers have done and are paying for what they have done. We want to talk about how education can be a shining light – the one service that every child in the country will use, the true test of who we are as a society. We need to be brave enough to put money in there. It’s not that long-term an investment – we’ll see the fruit of primary education investment as soon as 2018.”
INTO insight The class of 2010
The INTO is one of the most powerful unions in the country.
Membership:36,000 and growing, thanks to the allocation of special-needs posts. New members are also coming from training courses in the UK and graduates of Hibernia's online training programme. Over 50 per cent of members are under 35.
Branch network: The INTO has 160 branches.
Income:Each member pays an annual stipend of €380, bringing in over €13 million a year. There are proposals to reduce the fee, which will be discussed at this week's congress.
Staff:The INTO employs 50 people, including 15 officials.
