The strength of the Irish education system is built largely upon the excellence of its teachers. Minister for Education Mary Hanafin acknowledged this truism in a recent interview but she also lamented the continuing difficulties faced by schools in dealing with the small minority of under-performing teachers.
And there are real problems. Official sources admit that only a "handful" of the 50,000 or so teachers in the State are dismissed every year. While many more, faced with internal disciplinary procedures, opt for early retirement, there are scores of others who are free to continue on in schools. This is a grossly unsatisfactory situation. Under-performing teachers at either primary or second level present huge difficulties for their colleagues and for parents. Most of all, an under-performing teacher can damage the education of a child by dampening their enthusiasm for a subject and/or by failing to provide the assistance they need.
Although the Department of Education is to be commended for moving to address the issue of under-performance, the proposal detailed in today's edition appears deeply flawed. In essence, the department wants the school principal - rather than the department's own inspectors - to play a key role in identifying and assessing under-performing teachers. Under the plan, advice from the principal could trigger disciplinary action which could lead to eventual dismissal. It is a heavy onus to put on school principals already overburdened with a huge variety of teaching, managerial and administrative tasks. But the proposal is also flawed in one other important respect; it denies teachers what every other profession would expect as a basic right - the entitlement to be assessed by a knowledgeable, independent person.
There are clear dangers in the current proposal. A principal is well qualified to assess the professional conduct of a teacher but is he or she always capable of assessing their professional competence as a teacher? How can a principal with a background in Irish or maths assess the work of a history or geography teacher? And what about a situation in which a principal has an uneasy personal relationship with a colleague? Can he or she be trusted to act in an independent and objective manner?
Given these difficulties, the department might best rethink its position. It is to be hoped that a more realistic and workable proposal will emerge from the ongoing discussions in the Teachers Conciliation Council. Teachers deserve something rather better - and fairer - than the current proposal but the issue of under-performing teachers must be acknowledged and addressed.