Untrained teachers seek recognition

Earlier this month we highlighted the fact that more than 1,600 primary school teaching jobs are filled with unqualified teachers, 800 of whom have no teaching qualifications. The INTO has issued an ultimatum that unless the Government acts to improve the situation they will stop working alongside unqualified personnel in September 2005.

Kay Kevhilan reports

The annual college intake for primary teacher training is 1,400. With class sizes reducing and the pool of qualified teachers further eroded through allocation to students with special needs, the supply of qualified primary school teachers is not meeting the demand.

A reader, who has spent over 30 years teaching primary children, and who is not a qualified primary teacher, outlines the position of long-term unqualified teachers and their grievances about lack of recognition, pay and conditions of employment.

"I read with interest your article in the Farmers Journal of 7 June. The fact is that the teacher supply is in crisis and has been for many years. Unqualified personnel are now present in schools, but there is a core of untrained teachers who have been in the primary educational system for over 30 years.

"The Department of Education and Science (DES) has refused to accommodate them with any opportunity to acquire a qualification or to recognise them in any capacity other than as a "stand in" in the classroom.

"I am one such teacher and I consider myself a teacher in the true sense of the word, as I have taught in primary schools for 35 years. I have been employed by the DES as a substitute and temporary teacher during these years.

"In the capacity of unqualified teacher I have done exactly the same work as trained teachers. I have taught every class from junior infants to sixth class. I have worked with children with special needs and I have been employed as a resource teacher for travellers. I have worked with children on the autistic spectrum. I attended parent-teacher meetings, assessed children by administering scientific tests, I have written reports for Social Services and prepared children for the sacraments.

"With the experience and maturity that I have, I feel I am as capable as any trained teacher and the experience I have more than makes up for any training which I may lack. I have attended all in-service training currently being run for the implementation of the new curriculum. I have also attended numerous courses, including computer courses, all in the interest of improving my knowledge and skills in the educational field.

"I have worked in schools, which have general inspections, and I have always received very positive comments from the inspectors in respect to the atmosphere of my classroom and my teaching methodologies."

Poor treatment

"For all this dedication and service I am on a low fixed daily rate, with no sick pay or increments. During July and August I have to suffer the indignity of "signing-on" with the Department of Social Welfare. I am required to sign up with FAS and to show that I am actively seeking work even though I am assured of employment in September in primary schools.

"What have I done to rectify my position? A small group of colleagues in the same situation as myself corresponded with Ministers of Education, both present and past, seeking recognition or status for the dedication and commitment we have given to the children of this country.

"We were never afforded the opportunity to meet with them personally and all replies were negative. We joined the Manufacturing Science and Finance Union (MSF), but the Department of Education and Science would not negotiate as INTO is the Union recognised by the Minister for primary teachers. The trade union arranged a meeting with representatives from INTO who assured us that they had put forward our case to the DES. The Department did not respond!"

Recommendations ignored

"In July 2000, I presented an oral submission outlining our case to the Joint Committee on Education and Science and the Committee, made up of all parties of the Oireachtas, unanimously agreed that ‘untrained primary school teachers with over 20 year's satisfactory experience should be entitled to sick pay, holiday pay, maternity leave, increments and pension entitlements once they have successfully completed a satisfactory evaluation of their work, following an appropriate in-service or a conversion course whether or not they hold a primary degree'.

This is a direct quote but there was no follow-up to this recommendation."

Treble pay to untrained assistants

"In recent years we have seen new personnel employed in the primary schools, namely Special Needs Assistants. Their duties are to assist a teacher with a child who, having been assessed as needing extra help, is assigned an assistant.

"They have a responsibility to that child only, under the direction of that particular teacher. Special Needs Assistants have a structured pay scale and all other entitlements attached to that post. The requirement for this post is Junior Certificate.

"If an assistant is working under an unqualified teacher, the assistant has higher pay than the teacher does. An unqualified teacher receives €9.85 per hour, whereas a temporary resource teacher, whether trained or untrained, receives over €27.00 per hour with pension and benefits. The teacher has responsibility for up to 30 children and the assistant is responsible for one child.

"The teacher supply is in crisis but we unqualified, mature teachers are now and have always been committed to the children and the schools we serve.

"We are adaptable and we are conscientious, mature and highly experienced. We feel justified in seeking greater status and recognition for the role we play. We feel that with our years of service and experience we deserve to be considered in a different light to those people who have come into the system in latter years."