LOBBYING for change is intense in and around Dail Eireann as the ASTI and the TUI push for further amendments to the Education Bill, which went into committee stage last week. The TUI is among a minority of interested groups supporting the establishment of regional education boards. The ASTI, on the other hand, insists that the boards would deprive schools of much needed funding.
"They are bureaucratic and expensive," says Charlie Lennon, general secretary of the ASTI. The ASTI also believes that "the grudging and niggardly recognition" afforded to the National Council for Curriculum Assessment which is composed of all education partners to advise on curriculum development, "represents another glaring fault in the proposed Bill."
Supporting the regional boards Jim Dorney, general secretary of the TUI, says "we have long supported the idea of an intermediate tier in Irish education which would be democratic in nature and would bring a coherence to the `crazy quilt' of education provision in Ireland."
The TUI wants a section of the Education Bill amended to include an intention of limiting competition between schools. "We consider that this is necessary in order to protect schools that cater for the full range of students needs and abilities in a non-selective way. We want to ensure that `league tables' and destructive competition cannot be introduced, whatever political parties are in power.
The TUI also wants reports from regional boards and schools to protect the privacy of both students and teachers. They want to see a commitment to gender equity included among the objects of boards and the functions of schools.
Following the tabling of more than 60 changes by the Minister last week, the ASTI says that, while some of the worst aspects of the Bill have been amended, "major concerns" have still not been addressed. Lennon says that no provision has been made for the additional resources needed to cope with the extra workload being imposed on teachers and principals as a result of the changes flowing from the Bill.
The ASTI says that the reduction of hours is now top of their agenda after a meeting to discuss the implementation of the PCW last Wednesday. The issue of "time for performance of duties" is a major issue in the consideration of proposals on in school management among second level teachers. Lennon points out that a teacher who under takes to carry out serious administrative/management duties is able to do so only when he or she is granted some hours release from classroom duties. The union "will continue to lobby and negotiate and to try and make the Government realise that this is ridiculous.
