Hundreds of new temporary supervisors, including one fisherman, were finding their feet in schools yesterday. Alison Healy reports
It seemed like a typical day in Muckross Park College in Donnybrook, Dublin, yesterday. There was the usual quick skirmish to get into class at 9 a.m. Afterwards, a few stragglers queued at a desk in the main hall to explain their lateness on the 46A bus.
But it was not a typical day in the staffroom and classroom. Six temporary supervisors started work in the girls' school yesterday, following ASTI's decision to ban all supervision and substitution duties.
In Newpark Comprehensive School in Blackrock, pupils were sent home after 11 a.m. to allow eight supervisors to be trained. Postgraduates, retired civil servants and a fisherman were among the new staff being trained at that school. The fisherman worked on a trawler at weekends so this weekday work suited him.
Mr Derek West, principal of Newpark, said he expected school hours to return to normal today. He was very happy with the quality of supervisors on offer but was worried at the breakdown in talks. "I'm very much of the view that teachers are the best people to supervise pupils. I would have thought it was going to be a short-term dispute but there are such different agendas between the three unions, and that worries me," he said.
With two unions and secretarial staff to deal with, Mr West spent most of last week "trying to keep the lines of communication open". He decided to allocate a separate room to supervisors to avoid any tension between teachers and the temporary staff during breaks.
At Muckross Park the new staff were not having much contact with the teachers, as they had asked that the supervisors be excluded from the staff-room.
"I'm a little bit nervous," said Mr Brendan Shortall, the first new volunteer to supervise a class. "It's like any new job on the first day - you don't know what to expect." He had previously worked as an English language teacher, a journalist and a restaurant manager.
Muckross Park had no difficulty getting volunteers for the work, the principal, Ms Patricia Fitzsimons, said. Two were retired air hostesses while others were graduates of various disciplines. "But we did have difficulty regarding the timescale. It was a ridiculous timescale," she said. Parents of Muckross pupils had mixed reactions to the action. "I do think the teachers are right," said one father. "I'm married to a teacher, of course, but I think they have a case."
One mother said she was "very saddened" the ASTI had refused to get involved in the benchmarking process. "They have gone out on a limb and that's why they haven't got the public support."
However, the teachers at Muckross Park were reluctant to give their side of the story. Only one teacher agreed to speak but asked not to be named. "We are 100 per cent behind ASTI. People say teachers' voices are not being heard but we've never had more ballots," she said.
Asked why teachers were not allowing supervisors into the staffroom, she said: "First of all, there's no room. Have you seen our working conditions? But it is as much for their protection as for ourselves."