Teachers in Co Clare and parts of Co Cork will go on strike next month over the working conditions of teaching principals and the effect their dual role has on education.
Principals in Co Clare and teachers in Bantry and Bandon in Co Cork will participate in the one-day strike on October 12th.
The Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) says the striking teachers are not seeking more money but will be "taking a stand for quality in education".
The organisation says that in three-quarters of the State's primary schools the principal has full-time responsibility for a class as well as having to fulfil general administrative duties.
Expecting principals to fulfil such a dual role was "a formula designed to create dysfunctional schools".
A spokesman for the Department of Education last night accused the INTO of "using students as pawns".
He said it was the second year running that the organisation had threatened industrial action which would affect primary pupils.
Overall investment in primary education had increased dramatically over the last two years and a £5 million caretaker and secretarial package announced earlier this month would help ease the burden on many principals, he said.
Next month's action follows a ballot of teachers in Co Clare and in the INTO's Bandon and Bantry branches. Some 124 principals will go on strike in Co Clare. The strike will also close schools in Bantry and Bandon, where 142 teachers will strike.
The INTO's general secretary, Senator Joe O'Toole, said last night the organisation was seeking "to ensure that children being taught by teaching principals receive an education free of the constant interruptions which are part of the principal's job of running the school".
He said the problems faced by teaching principals would be exacerbated by "the enormous task" of implementing the new primary school curriculum.
This reform and other "huge changes" envisaged in the Education Act and the Education Welfare Bill were welcome but could only be successful if principals were available to guide and support the rest of the teaching staff. For this to be possible principals would need to have "appropriate time release" from teaching.
The INTO said a principals' review group had been set up by the previous minister for education in spring 1997, and was due to report in June last year. However, it had not finished its work until this May and its report had not yet been published.
A spokesman for the Department of Education said the Minister was not at fault for the delay in the review group's report.
