Sir, - When will the media vilification of the secondary teachers in the ASTI end? Like all parties in the Dail, the Socialist Party was invited to send a representative to observe the Easter week ASTI convention in Galway. The gathering I attended was unrecognisable from many of the lurid media reports purporting to be objective journalism.
I have attended many political and trade union gatherings over the years. On many occasions substantial numbers of those attending spent a considerable time during working sessions socialising in nearby bars, with a rush to the conference hall if an important vote was imminent. By contrast, during the entire sittings of the ASTI convention I observed a packed hall diligently following, and participating in, the debates on the issues to hand.
One can only marvel, then, at the blatant news management that chooses to report widely and frequently on a parent's group who complained about being engaged in robust verbal debate, to be followed for a second day by the same treatment of an incident in which an alleged delegate hit the nose of another member of a parent's group but thankfully drew no blood and left no mark. This blatant lopsidedness in what was supposed to be serious news reportage was lamely justified in some quarters because the convention decided to have several debates in private session.
If I were an ASTI member I would have argued that the media be admitted to most sessions. But it is a trade union's right to discuss certain matters in private if it chooses. Delegates might well ask when they were last invited to attend the closed editorial meetings of newspapers and other media outlets where it was decided that objective, balanced and fair reporting would go out the window in favour of unrestrained abuse of their campaign for a just wage.
Despite the private sessions, there were numerous delegates freely available to tell their stories to journalists, if they were interested. Stories of the joy and pain of being educators in this State at this time; of the huge range of input by teachers inside and outside the classroom; of the urgent problems that need to be addressed. But why access the real story when there is a different agenda to be imposed?
The millionaire-owned press has its own agenda in the teachers' dispute: slap down any group that goes into the front line to expose so-called partnership as a device to hold down workers' wages while allowing corporate profits, rents and the fruits of speculation unbridled growth. For if the teachers succeed, there are tens of thousands of disgracefully low-paid workers in the public service and tens of thousands more in the private sector who will justifiably seek an improvement. The ruthlessness with which this agenda is being pursued can be seen in the total disregard for the damage that the torrent of propaganda is inflicting on the teaching profession. It is reckless and irresponsible. Were the existing cadre of secondary teachers to be demoralised, this would not only be hugely destructive, but could dissuade new recruits and within five years could lead to a really serious crisis in second-level education.
It beggars belief that the leadership of the ICTU continues to observe a shameful silence as a significant group of essential workers are endlessly pilloried. Shameful too is the silence of sporting organisations, including the GAA, the IRFU and the FAI, which owe a huge debt to generations of teachers who have, for the most part voluntarily and unpaid, trained and organised generations of students to the benefit of these organisations. If a sense of solidarity means nothing to ICTU and these organisations, perhaps at least they will now say publicly "enough is enough", for the benefit of the youth of this State. For, be assured, it is they who will ultimately suffer if the demonisation and downgrading of their teachers continues and results in a serious reverse to second-level education. - Yours, etc.,
Joe Higgins TD, Dail Eireann, Dublin 2.