As teachers vote on the supervision deal, Michael McCann says they are the best people to perform these duties
Since November 2000 the majority of second-level schools have been affected by industrial action which highlighted the fact that supervision and substitution duties were voluntary, unpaid and taken for granted.
Since February 2002, when the ASTI instructed its members to withdraw totally from voluntary supervision and substitution, closure of schools has been avoided through the use of non-teachers. In many ways, this phase of industrial action was even more destructive of the ethos of school communities and more corrosive of interpersonal relationships than the previous phase. The use of non-teachers against the wishes of the teachers inevitably led to tension and a serious increase in student indiscipline in some schools.
In August 2002 the Department of Education and Science finalised details of a new national scheme for supervision and substitution. ASTI did not allow its members to participate. To enable schools to reopen last September new "interim arrangements" were put in place and remain there a year to the day from their inception.
Even in schools where the Contingency Plan/Interim Arrangements are working reasonably well, one will often find underlying unresolved tensions. In other schools, however, the situation is much more serious.
The principals' organisation, NAPD, has frequently articulated its concerns at the huge physical and emotional cost on its own members of current arrangements and at the damage being done to school communities. Shared vision, deeply held values of mutual respect, and trust and fundamental concepts of student formation and holistic education are being undermined on a daily basis.
How much poorer would our education be if we did not have the hours of voluntary unpaid effort which go into coaching and training teams, producing musicals and dramas, preparing for debates, and the host of other activities in every school in the country? Where would we be without the deep commitment to pastoral care and student welfare given by teachers, class tutors and year heads? These extras constitute the real added value in Irish education.
But this added value can only thrive in an atmosphere of good will and mutual respect, where all members of the school community, not least the teachers, feel valued. It is this crucial ambiance that I feel is in great danger of being eroded if the industrial disharmony persists.
If we lose this, we will be left with an education system which will be consumerist and utilitarian, and the holistic formation and development of the individual will no longer be the goal. I fear this will happen if the dispute is not resolved and another system using non-teachers is put in place.
I have no desire to lecture or harangue teachers. God knows they have had enough of that, often from people who never stood in a classroom and have no idea of the stresses and strains. My purpose is to tell it the way it appears to me and, I believe, to the vast majority of colleagues in NAPD.
It is our considered opinion that teachers are far and away the best people to engage in supervision and substitution. However, the new scheme is not perfect, and the ASTI has rightly pointed to flaws and anomalies that will have to be addressed through the in-built review. I, for one, would love to see those who did the duties on a voluntary, unpaid basis for so many years be in a position to do them, if they so wish, when there is an allowance available. It would, I believe, mark the beginning of the restoration of equilibrium and justice in the system.
Michael McCann is president of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals