Sir, - The two articles on teachers' pay in your edition of November 11th failed to ask the most important question of all: why does the entire second-level school system depend for its very existence on voluntary work?
Bus-drivers are not expected to service their buses in their free time, nor are surgeons, when they finish in the operating theatre, expected to serve meals to their patients. Yet these are essential services without which public transport and hospitals cannot function. For years, teachers have been giving thousands of hours which they are not obliged to work and for which they receive no payment, in order to prop up a system which is still, in many respects, run like a charity. In all that time has anyone ever said: "Thank you"? For the Minister now to castigate teachers for refusing to volunteer shows blinding ingratitude. Teachers are paid to teach. The Minister is paid to run the education service. Who is falling down on the job? - Yours, etc.
Susie Hall, Ravensdale, Malahide, Co Dublin