Sir, - In what sense, by any stretch of the imagination, can you compare the teachers' withdrawal from voluntary supervision to the Garda's "infamous `blue flu' " (Editorial, November 15th)?
Voluntary supervision is just what it says: supervision volunteered for each year, on an individual basis, done with free will and for no payment. This supervision has been provided by teachers, free of charge, for many years - ever since the fall-off in religious vocations radically changed the role of the churches in the day-to-day running of our schools. It must be said that the Department of Education magnanimously accepted the free work of religious for many, many years! Old habits are hard to break.
If I give of my services free, surely I am entitled to withhold my services, at my discretion, without recriminations from those who almost certainly have no idea what is involved in the supervision of hundreds of teenagers, freed from the confines of the classroom. Moreover, supervision does not form part of my professional brief.
I know of no other profession or trade that gives of its services or time for no payment. Does the doctor, does the plumber plumb for no payment? Why should the teacher be expected to give his services for nothing?
"Blue flu", "chalk flu" - call it what you will - in no way compares to the withdrawal of voluntary work in schools. - Yours, etc.,
Kevin V. McEneaney, (ASTI, Monaghan), St Macartan's College, Monaghan.