Thousands of secondary school pupils in Cork city and county remained at home yesterday due to the teachers' dispute. From Castletownbere in west Cork to schools in Cork city, boards of management advised that for health and safety reasons pupils should not attend classes. Mr Jim O'Leary, principal of St Mary's girls' secondary school in Macroom, which has 389 pupils, said that none of the teachers at his school wanted to withhold education from their pupils.
"Teaching is no longer seen as an attractive option for young people leaving the school system. "Out of 78 Leaving Cert pupils who received exceptionally good marks in the Leaving Certificate last year, only one at this school has opted to go into teaching. "The remainder of the pupils chose careers in law, medicine, dentistry, computers and food technology etc. "This speaks volumes. For these very bright pupils, teaching simply was not an option and they went instead for careers which would be rewarding in every sense.
"The only way to get excellent teachers is to attract excellent graduates who want to go into teaching and who know they will be well paid for it," Mr O'Leary said.
At St Aidan's Community College in Cork, the principal, Dr Frank Steele, said that because the teaching staff was predominantly Teachers' Union of Ireland, the school was able to operate classes for Junior and Leaving Certificate pupils. Some 200 pupils in this category were unaffected but four first-year classes as well as four second-year and four fifth-year classes were asked not to come in.
Ms Eileen Lordan, deputy principal of St Mary's High School, Midleton, said the school was open despite the fact that its 625 pupils were not there.
"All our teachers have been on duty as normal, they are preparing examinations, doing corrections and preparing other material. This is not a day off for them by any means," she added. At St Colman's College, Fermoy, the principal, Father Denis Kelleher, said that both boarding and day students had been asked not to come to school.