The Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) and Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) have issued a directive to their members instructing them not to cover for retired teachers who have not been replaced.
A hiring moratorium on filling vacant promotion posts across the public service means the positions of middle management (assistant principal and special duties posts) are not being filled.
According to the teachers’ unions, the block on filling these positions is having a “devastating effect on schools which will be greatly worsened in the coming months due to further retirements”.
“It is absolutely imperative that this moratorium on appointments is reversed,” the unions said.
Both the TUI and ASTI issued a directive to their members to come into effect from March 8th not to carry out the duties of a vacated post.
TUI general secretary Peter MacMenamin said: “It is an utterly destructive situation that will only worsen as more principals and deputy principals retire.”
Mr MacMenamin said he expected a surge of retirements in the coming months as teachers nearing retirement seek to protect their pension provisions and that this will result in “increasingly large numbers of vacant middle management posts in schools”.
He said posts are also left vacant if the holder is absent on short term sick leave or maternity leave.
“As with all cutbacks to public education provision, it is the most vulnerable students who will suffer the most.
“Student drop-out, which is already running at around 20 per cent, will inevitably increase as a result of the absence of these supports,” he added.
Fine Gael education spokesman Brian Hayes said schools should be allowed to have control of their own budgets as the current system is “not working”.
“According to reports, 900 assistant principals and teachers of special duties retired this school year, and the same number is expected to leave the next," he said. “With these posts not being filled, students are seriously losing out and vital school duties are no longer carried out.
“Industrial action and the current impasse is not the way forward, and I want to see the department start negotiating with the unions around the issue of management posts,” Mr Hayes added.
