Minister for Education Helen McEntee has said she wants talks between her department and the ASTI and TUI on Accelerated Senior Cycle Re-development completed by the beginning of May.
“I hope to have those engagements concluded in the coming weeks by the beginning of May. So this won’t be a long process,” Ms McEntee said.
“I want to make sure that we have an agreement as to what more I can do but also that we are working together to make this a success”.
Her comments come following this morning’s emergency vote by ASTI delegates at their annual congress in Killarney.
Post-primary teachers may ballot for industrial action if the talks fail to deliver “an acceptable outcome”.
ASTI President Donal Cremin described the motion as “clearly carried”.
There were 21 speakers in favour of the motion, and 15 against, in an emergency debate that lasted one hour and 40 minutes.
An almost identical motion will be debated by TUI delegates in Wexford tomorrow.
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Talks on senior cycle reform took place between the unions and the department last week and are due to resume after the Easter break.
The resolutions state that any outcome to the talks should be put to a ballot of trade union members.
Noting the Minister for Education’s decision to proceed with the phasing in of the Accelerated Senior Cycle Redevelopment “despite reasonable calls from the ASTI and the TUI for a pause to allow for proper consultation, planning, and resourcing”, it mandates negotiators to participate in talks which are focused on issues such as adequate time and resources for planning and delivery, comprehensive training for teachers, and infrastructural and assessment supports for schools.
Asserting that the Unions’ position is “principled, student-centred, and rooted in the defence of quality public education”, the resolution goes on to instruct “that, in the event that these intensive talks fail to deliver an acceptable outcome that can be put to ballot, the [two unions] will utilise all mechanisms available to the Union, up to and including a ballot for industrial action, to defend professional standards and protect student outcomes”.
Education funding ‘paltry and pitiful’ – TUI General Secretary
The General Secretary of the TUI said that the Irish education system continues to suffer from chronic and deliberate underfunding, which he described as a legacy of austerity prolonged by political indifference.
Michael Gillespie made the remarks during an address to the TUI Annual Congress which is taking place in Wexford.
“Our economic circumstances are no longer an excuse for paltry spending and pitiful investment,” Mr Gillespie said.
“The time for hollow promises is over. What is needed now is decisive, transformative investment in public education – investment that recognises the value of our work and the needs of our students,” he added.
The theme of this year’s TUI Congress is ‘Address Inequality, Invest in Education’.
The conference will be addressed by Ms McEntee tomorrow.
The event is being attended by over 500 delegates and guests, with motions being debated on issues such as pay, pensions, housing and the conflict in Gaza.
Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless has said that a new contract for adult education tutors should be in place by September.
As Mr Lawless took to the stage, a number of delegates held pro-Palestinian signs carrying messages such as ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘Enact the Occupied Territories Bill’.
The protest was held in silence and the Minister’s address was not interrupted. He received a round of applause when he concluded his speech.
In response to the Minister’s comments, TUI President David Waters said that adult education tutors had been let down repeatedly in the past by what he described as “rogue” Education and Training Boards (ETBs) that had failed to implement previous agreements.
“Agreements between the TUI and your Department are not open to selective implementation by ETBs,” Mr Waters said.
“We are not dealing with numbers on a spreadsheet here Minister, we are dealing with people – their lives, their mortgages, their families and their careers,” he added.
Speaking to reporters after his address, Mr Lawless said he was not happy with what he said were one or two ETBs that had failed to fulfil an agreement that was entered into between his department and the TUI.
“I would say to those ETBs, that they need to get on board fast. I will be engaging with those ETBs further to understand why that is the case,” Mr Lawless said.
“There are only one or two, to be fair, but that’s one or two too many,” he added.
‘Least worst’ option
Asked about Leaving Cert reform, Mr Lawless compared the CAO points system to the ‘least worst’ option available.
“Churchill once said that democracy was the least worst system having tried everything else, I sometimes think similarly with the CAO,” he said.
“It is the Minister for Education, Minister McEntee, as opposed to myself, that would have primary responsibility for that area so it probably would be unfair of me to go into too much comment on it.”
“What I will say is, at the third level sector and the further education sector, we have introduced multiple new pathways into education,” he added.
The Minster was also asked for an update on the development of a Wexford campus for the South East Technological University (SETU).
“The site has been identified and there’s a CPO (compulsory purchase order) process in play,” Mr Lawless said.
“CPO is a legal process and not a straightforward one. My understanding is there are some legal challenges.”
“So, I don’t want to go into too much detail, because it would be prejudicial possibly, to the process and but I’m keen as Minister to deliver that site as soon as possible,” he added.
Adult education tutors
Adult education tutors, who are employed by Education and Training Boards, have been engaged in a long-running campaign to secure the same terms and conditions as teachers who work in further education.
A motion will be debated at the TUI conference calling for a ballot for industrial action, up to and including strike action, in a bid to secure improved contracts for adult education tutors.
In his address to the conference, Mr Lawless said the Government aims to have new contracts in place by September this year for those staff who want to avail of the opportunity.
“The contracts will provide incremental progression and a career path for tutors in the further education and training sector, and this is something that we should all welcome,” Mr Lawless said.
In response to the Minister’s comments, TUI President David Waters said that adult education tutors had been let down repeatedly in the past by what he described as “rogue” Education and Training Boards (ETBs) that had failed to implement previous agreements.
“Agreements between the TUI and your Department are not open to selective implementation by ETBs,” Mr Waters said.
“We are not dealing with numbers on a spreadsheet here Minister, we are dealing with people – their lives, their mortgages, their families and their careers,” he added.
Speaking to reporters after his address, Mr Lawless said he was not happy with what he said were one or two ETBs that had failed to fulfil an agreement that was entered into between his department and the TUI.
“I would say to those ETBs, that they need to get on board fast. I will be engaging with those ETBs further to understand why that is the case,” Mr Lawless said.
“There are only one or two, to be fair, but that’s one or two too many,” he added.
Technological Universities
On Technological University reform, the minister said that he and his department are fully committed to the continued development of TUs and Institutes of Technology as a sector.
He note the establishment and development of five TUs to date.
“However, it is just as important to remember that we also have two other excellent institutions in the technological sector – Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) and the Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT),” Mr Lawless said.
“DKIT and IADT have not and will not be forgotten,” he added.
Pay
On the issue of pay, the TUI General Secretary told delegates that a 1% pay increase linked to a local bargaining mechanism under the current public sector pay deal had created uncertainty.
“The remaining 2% of the possible 3% increase is not guaranteed and will likely become a key battleground in the next round of pay negotiations,” Mr Gillespie said.
“This places a heavy reliance on a future deal, and introduces a real risk of delay or dilution.”
“However, it is essential that productivity-linked increases under local bargaining do not become a Trojan horse for additional workload, work intensification, or unrealistic efficiency demands,” he added.
Burnout
The TUI General Secretary said excessive workloads and work intensification are breaking the teaching profession.
He told delegates that members have repeatedly raised the alarm about an ever-increasing workload and never enough time, a spiral he described as unsustainable.
“It is becoming a serious health and well-being crisis. Let us call it what it is: burnout and the burnout is real and impacting our profession,” Mr Gillespie said.
Teacher shortages
The TUI conference was told that the problem of teacher recruitment and retention is a crisis of the Government’s own making, and the inevitable result of repeated decisions to force the education system to do more with fewer resources.
The General Secretary said the union welcomes the recent decision to allow teachers to gain permanent contracts sooner but that this is not enough.
“To tackle the teacher supply crisis, further urgent steps are needed before it becomes a national emergency from which as other countries have discovered there is no coming back from,” he said.
Mr Gillespie called for enhanced allocations for schools so they can offer full hours to teachers, clear career pathways and progression opportunities for teachers to encourage them to stay in the profession, and the removal of barriers faced by teachers returning from abroad must be removed, starting with recognition of teaching service overseas.
Leaving Cert reform
The TUI conference was told that accelerated Senior Cycle reform is the most urgent and demanding challenge currently facing second-level education.
Delegates heard that teachers are being asked to absorb sweeping changes to assessment models and methodologies, all while maintaining their existing teaching commitments.
“This is creating an unsustainable workload and stretching school structures to breaking point,” Mr Gillespie said.
He added that if the reforms are to succeed, structural supports must be put in place.
He also warned that the rapid evolution of technology and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) had brought both opportunities and serious challenges which must be strategically integrated into the process, not simply added on, so they support, rather than burden, educators.
Speaking ahead of travelling to Killarney, Minister McEntee said she wanted to do what she could to support teachers to make sure that Leaving Certificate reforms would be a success.
She said it was “really important” for students that reform moved ahead.
Ms McEntee acknowledged that there was further work to be done on a number of fronts, including in relation to support for teachers on the subject of AI.
Teachers are concerned that AI could be used inappropriately by students working on projects that form part of their final assessments and that in seeking to verify that work is students’ own, they may not be able to detect this.
One motion due to be debated by ASTI delegates seeks a legal indemnity for teachers in such a case.
“AI is already here and it is most important that teachers know how to work with it,” Ms McEntee said.
“Guidelines have already been issued but there is further work to be done,” she added.
