Sir, - Your recriminatory editorial about the ASTI's position (December 5th), the smug tone of Gemma Hussey's article in EL (December 5th) and the hurler-on-the fence comments of your education correspondent (December 6th) goad me into writing this letter. All told, they are not worthy of a quality newspaper which one expects to form opinions, not merely echo them or to use buzz-words like "benchmarking" and "productivity" as if they were mantras.
One aspect of my job as a teacher of English is to train students to read critically, to test slogans/buzz-words and to look for evidence and/or the logical coherence of whatever material is on hand. Another is to train them to beware of false analogies, such as that between productivity in an area of work where the output could be measured, counted or given a monetary value and productivity in teaching where we are dealing with intangibles, a wide variety of ability and aptitude in pupils and a range of subjects.
In short, "productivity" is a misleading word in the context of education. "Benchmarking" presupposes an agreed benchmark and method of assessment by which to compare the work of civil servants and that of teachers. It beggars belief that agreement could be reached about work that is intrinsically different. As for the sacred cow of the PPF, you suggest that by not agreeing to it we in the ASTI are guilty - shades here of Gemma Hussey's "morality" speech to teachers in the bad old days? Of course, the Government would like everyone to be in the PPF, grateful for the blessings it is going to bestow! A quiet workforce is any government's dream. Apart from my misgivings about the erosion of democracy implied by collective bargaining on such a scale, the PPF for teachers would mean a Programme for Penury and Fury since our current salaries are too low to form a satisfactory base to begin from.
You asserted that teachers have no bottom line. We certainly have and it is this: if the public wants its children taught by qualified and committed teachers it must pay for this. No more lip-service to our system of education and the rights of children; the system will not work without teachers and the rights of children have corresponding duties on the part of the government. The salary for every teaching post has to be able to attract and retain people who can now get jobs elsewhere.
Yes, I would welcome a commission on education to look radically at the whole system; yes, we should be accountable to the Department of Education and Science for the quality of our teaching. But first of all, we must have our case heard.
I thoroughly enjoyed last week's rally. It was exactly that, a rally. So, far from flagging as your education correspondent seems to think, we are more determined than ever not to let either our colleagues or the children of Ireland down. - Yours, etc.,
Honor O'Connor, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.