Sir, – Joe Humphreys's article "Whistleblower claims learning support hours being redeployed" (September 28th) only scratches the surface of the problem of teaching hours being used for middle-management work in schools.
Regular classroom teachers in second-level schools are now being offered time or classes off in lieu of payment for the performance of management roles which used to be paid positions.
What is worrying is that, during a whole-school evaluation in a school last week (not my own but one close by in north Co Dublin), members of the Department of Education inspectorate, when questioned about the practice, had no issue with it and indeed encouraged it. Therefore the Department of Education seems fine with the idea of teachers who should be teaching being freed up by school management to perform functions other than teaching. All of which leads to bigger class sizes for their colleagues and poorer educational outcomes.
Despite the Department of Education’s comment about there being no evidence of a widespread misuse of hours, I contend that there is and that this is a serious issue that needs to be investigated. – Yours, etc,
ALAN O’CONNOR,
Donnycarney,
Dublin 9.