INTO conference: Teachers in disadvantaged schools are demanding an extra financial incentive of up to €2,800 a year for putting up with the physical danger inherent in their jobs.
Congress was told that in one school in Dublin, a teacher found faeces in her desk, vandals knocked down a school wall with a JCB and teachers have to carry walkie-talkies in the playground because they are on constant watch for intruders. A resource teacher was mugged at needlepoint inside the school itself.
In another school, 19 teachers, more than half of the total, left their jobs in a single year because they could no longer cope with the feeling of constant threat, one teacher told delegates. Teachers in disadvantaged schools rarely lasted longer than four years, so these schools had more than the average number of unqualified teachers, "although we're grateful to have them", a teacher said.
Ms Margaret McCarthy, from Cork, told of a disadvantaged school where 16 out of 24 teachers left because they could not cope. She doubted that the "paltry" special duties allowance would be enough to keep teachers.
Teachers are so hard to find that 10 per cent in disadvantaged schools are unqualified, compared to 4 per cent in other schools, said Ms Noreen Flynn, of the central executive committee.
"Destabilising changes in society, most notably drugs, have wrought havoc in disadvantaged communities . . . Teachers grapple daily with the distress of children and parents," she said.
Teachers at the conference agreed not to identify the schools concerned to protect their pupils from stigma.
Ms Alison Gilliland said this crisis was "not only a Dublin issue, this is a Galway issue, a Belfast issue, a Cork issue". Ms Brenda Taaffe, from Dublin, said: "We are duty-bound to children in these schools to take a stand." By focusing on teachers and giving them extra allowances and early retirement benefits if they worked in disadvantaged schools, the Department of Education would help to stabilise teaching staff, she argued.
Currently, teachers receive a special duties allowance of €2,811 if they engage in extracurricular activities such as PE and music.
Disadvantaged teachers want a comparable additional allowance, which would be pensionable, to compensate for the additional stress. If they taught extracurricular subjects, these teachers would also receive the special duties allowance. This would add nearly €6,000 annually to the salary of a teacher in a disadvantaged school.
Teacher salaries range from €25,000 to €45,000. Young teachers could see their salaries boosted by 25 per cent with this allowance.
Attracting teachers to work in disadvantaged schools in Dublin is made more difficult by inaccessible house prices, which are driving good teachers out of the city, a young male teacher said.However, he said: "We work in these schools because we love it. Staff morale is high because teachers tend to watch out for each other. I love teaching and to be able to give something back. There are hugely positive things happening in my school. The children are not the reason teachers are leaving their jobs. It is the external factors and pressures that are making our jobs difficult and causing teacher turnover."