The announcement that instances of sexual harassment are to be pursued in the strongest possible way by the ASTI was greeted by loud applause in Tralee yesterday.
Mr Charlie Lennon, general secretary of the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland told delegates that "there have been efforts to brush incidents under the carpet and even to imply that the teachers themselves were in some way responsible.
"There have been attempts to bully teachers into withdrawing charges. I want to put it on the record publicly that there is no carpet big enough to hide such charges under."
Afterwards he said some recent cases were "hair-raising" but he would not detail any particulars because "some of the cases are very embarrassing and demeaning for the individual teachers themselves".
He told delegates at the 76th ASTI annual convention that school authorities would have to ensure that instances of sexual harassment were dealt with in the strongest possible way.
He also warned school authorities that democratic structures of management would have to be established. Few schools could argue successfully in the courts that it was not practical for them to set up a board of management under the new Education Bill, which he expected to be passed this summer.
It was astonishing, "almost 15 years after their introduction, that we find that about a third of second-level schools do not have boards of management through which teachers, parents and school owners can share responsibility for the management of the school".
Mr Lennon regretted that the Education Bill "does not place a statutory obligation on the Government to fund the education service adequately". Teachers had to overcome difficulties in schools throughout the State of inadequate staffing levels and inadequate financial support.
Over the coming year, he said, there had to be "improvements in staffing and funding" for the second-level education service.
He referred to a provision of the Employment Equality Act as "that objectionable provision which allows religious authorities an exemption from the strictures of the legislation in certain circumstances". He reiterated the ASTI's commitment to "support and defend any member who is carrying out their duties responsibly and who is discriminated against in relation to their employment on religious grounds". He said teachers in teaching posts in the autumn would hear no more about the PCW implementation but would enjoy the benefits of the proposals through the various schemes.
With regard to the current national pay programme, Partnership 2000 and the Government's commitments on taxation, he warned that teachers and the education service have made a major contribution to the current success of the economy. They should not see their living standards or reasonable expectations of owning their own accommodation eroded by the effects of that achievement.
"If the present programme survives the economic and industrial strains and stresses of the next year or so then, as far as teachers are concerned, any proposed new programme will have to contain provision for a proper pay review," he said.
He also warned against "hierarchical, authoritarian approaches to the management and administration of schools or of the education system generally", referring in particular to the new school management structures.
"This," he said, "is the first opportunity to test the education employers' commitment to the partnership concept.
"There is no room for arrogance or autocracy. Schools, like the education system as a whole, need leadership, not dictatorship . . . There are organisations, and perhaps even Government Departments involved in the education service, who still have to take those principles on board."
On curriculum development, Mr Lennon said the Department seemed unable to introduce new developments "without generating concern among the teachers about some aspect of the implementation process".
He said it was "absolutely vital to the credibility of all involved" that the introduction of the new Leaving Certificate syllabus in September 1999 "be undertaken on a comprehensive and effective basis and is not undermined by an approach which is characterised by parsimony and penny-pinching".
The new syllabus "will involve one of the largest training programmes ever and will affect more teachers at the one time than has happened since the introduction of the Junior Certificate", he said.