Sir, - Every year around this time some employees of the private sector find it necessary to excoriate the teachers of Ireland. They question what planet teachers are from, and encourage them to start living in the "real world".
The real world is the world of the child who comes to school unwashed and unfed. It is the world of physically abused children, sexually abused children, emotionally deprived children, and children who have great difficulty learning as a result of the harrowing circumstances of their lives. Teachers are in contact with this world every day of their working lives. The "real world" is most certainly not a comfortable air-conditioned office in a private sector business.
To infer, as Aine Walsh does (May 1st), that teachers are not producing the goods is grossly unfair and inaccurate. Testimony to this is provided by the fact that foreign multinationals continually cite the high standards of educational attainment in Ireland as being one of their primary reasons for investing here. Teachers are productive. The amount of additional productivity which has come about in schools over the past five years has been huge. Any cursory analysis will verify this. Such productivity has been largely unrewarded financially. Then there is the voluntary unpaid extra-curricular work which takes place in schools all over Ireland. Aine Walsh fails to acknowledge this.
Certainly the methods of assessment of teachers must be energised, modernised and made more effective. They need to be effective in such a way that teachers will empower all of Ireland's children present and future to achieve their full potential in education and life.
In order for this to happen it is also imperative that the Government attracts the brightest and the best students into teaching. For this to happen, a pay scale must be created which will entice highly talented young students into the profession. That talented school-leavers, particularly young males, no longer regard teaching as an attractive career option, despite the supposed short hours and the long holidays, is beyond doubt. Future generations of school children will suffer if this situation continues. This is the most compelling point the teachers have argued. Nothing that has emanated from the newspapers or the private sector has answered it satisfactorily. - Yours, etc.,
Richard Ford, Avenue Road, Dundalk, Co Louth.