Sir, – The majority of letter writers miss the point regarding “equal pay for equal work”. This strike is not advocating that a new entrant be paid the same as a teacher with 30 years’ experience.
The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) is against differentiated pay- scales. The current system guarantees that a teacher, starting in 2011 or after, will be paid thousands less than their colleagues at every respective point on their pay-scale.
Therefore two teachers, who commence teaching a day apart from each other, will endure a large pay gap every year for the rest of their careers.
That the Minister for Education Richard Bruton is unwilling to set a timeline to end this injustice is surprising. That the Minister refuses to acknowledge that this discrimination should ever end is practically beyond belief.
– Yours, etc,
DANIEL LYNCH
Gonzaga College SJ,
Dublin 6.
Sir, – Mary White (Letters, November 4th) makes three suggestions to improve teaching and learning in Ireland.
I would gladly put up with the first two (more class time and longer terms) if the third [whereby pupils are tested at several stages as they go through the system] could also be implemented.
I would put up with almost any pay cut if I could be guaranteed that the students in front of me had the necessary ability required to be there.
If I knew that all my first-year classes could read and write to a reasonably proficient level, and that all my Leaving Cert classes had actually passed my subject at Junior Cert my job would be so much easier. But in this country the education system is a conveyor belt. You get on at Infants in primary school and you fall off again after sixth year in second level and in between there are absolutely no checks.
– Yours, etc,
JOHN DOYLE
Enniskeane,
Co Cork.