JOAN HANNON,
Sir, - As a former teacher in the community/comprehensive sector, with a daughter who did her Leaving Certificate in the Institute of Education, may I make the following observations?
Teachers in the institute are required to do nothing but teach. They are not expected to be class tutors, year heads, to run book shops or tuck shops, or to be examination secretaries.
Their photocopying is done for them by secretarial staff. This is a real plus: photocopying occupies a significant amount of a teacher's time, given that all courses now require very substantial amounts of printed material.
Teachers in the institute do not have to tolerate students who disrupt their classes. If a student's behaviour is unacceptable the teacher has the right to remove him or her from the class. The onus is then on the student to reapply and give an undertaking of improved behaviour, which must be carried out. Nor do they take time-consuming attendance lists. Failure to attend class or to do homework is referred by the school manager to the parents, as are all other infringements of school rules.
Teachers in the institute are always in their classes, unless their own private circumstances prevent them. They are not off on in-service training for the multiple new courses visited upon schools by the Department of Education. They do not have to train to teach CSPE, Health Education, RSE, LCVP, LCA.
All they have to do is teach. Lucky them. - Yours, etc.,
JOAN HANNON,
Old Bridge Road,
Cootehill,
Co Cavan.