Sir, - Bernadine O'Sullivan (December 18th) seems to suggest that it is ASTI policy to oppose benchmarking. This is hardly true in the light of the recent ballot of ASTI members, in which 74 per cent voted "to send the ASTI Labour Court submission to the benchmarking body".
I quote this statistic from page seven of the December edition of Astir, the official ASTI publication. Clearly, the vast majority of secondary teachers are facing up to the rather miserable reality that there is no alternative to the benchmarking process, since interest in any form of strike action seems now to have evaporated.
I pose the following questions to Ms O'Sullivan, or indeed to anyone else interested in answering:
1. In what ways is benchmarking worse than either an arbitration hearing or a salary review? My experience of these mechanisms for determining salary levels is that each involves comparisons with other professions?
2. Is it likely that the ASTI will convince the Government to set up a forum, independent of benchmarking, to consider a substantial pay-rise for secondary teachers, particularly in the absence of effective industrial action?
3. If the ASTI members were asked to vote on sending the union's Labour Court submission to the benchmarking body, is it not absolutely daft that they weren't also asked to vote on full participation in the benchmarking process?
4. Is it fair to second-level teachers that the TUI alone should have to shoulder the burden of arguing the case in benchmarking for a substantial increase?
5. Can the ASTI logically sustain an argument for a 30 per cent pay rise?
6. If so, why aren't the union's negotiators in there, making the ASTI's unanswerable argument?
7. If the ASTI is concerned that the benchmarking process may damage our excellent education system by dismantling the Junior Cert, why aren't some ASTI educational experts explaining the merits of our exam system to the benchmarkers?
Just in case I don't get any answers, let me suggest that the ASTI organise a special convention as soon as possible to discuss full participation in the benchmarking process (unpalatable though it may be), and proper industrial action on the part of all three teachers' trade unions in the event that the final report of the benchmarkers is unacceptable to a majority of teachers. - Yours, etc.,
Pierce H. Purcell, (Retired secondary teacher, current trustee and former president of the ASTI), Davis Terrace, Clonmel, Co Tipperary.