ASTI directs teachers not to provide cover for colleagues

The country’s biggest second-level teachers’ union has directed members to refuse to provide cover for any teaching colleagues involved in training linked to the reformed junior cycle.

The move affects up to 3,500 members based in about 160 second-level schools where there are members of both the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) and the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI).

While TUI members have participated in training for several months since voting last year to accept the reforms, the ASTI remains opposed to the measures.

In a letter to members, ASTI general secretary Kieran Christie said the union's standing committee had decided that substitution which facilitated training for the junior cycle was "inappropriate" and a breach of its opposition to the reforms.

“Members must refuse to undertake such duties,” he wrote in a letter sent to members.

In addition, Mr Christie said ASTI members available for casual substitution are prohibited from substituting for absent colleagues who are attending any form of training or meeting linked to the junior cycle reforms.

New approaches

The reformed junior cycle aims to put less emphasis on rote-learning and more on new approaches to learning.

The first classroom-based assessments linked to the reforms are due to take place in second-year English classes over the coming weeks.

This latest development comes amid concern among some ASTI members that the union is in danger of losing younger members over its resistance to reform, especially in dual-union schools.

Delegates at the annual ASTI convention in Cork last month voted to re-state their opposition to the changes by directing members not to co-operate in any form of classroom-based assessments linked to the State exam.

However, some union members expressed concern that its stance was placing major pressure on members in dual-union schools and would harm the employment prospects of younger members.

About 3,500 ASTI members – 20 per cent the union’s membership – are based in dual union schools.

These schools are mostly community and comprehensives and secondary schools run by Education and Training Boards.

The union’s opposition to the changes means only one-in-three schools is likely to take part in the classroom-based assessments.

Written exam

Students will be required to research and present a three-minute oral communication task. This task will be assessed by the students’ own teacher.

By combining these classroom assessments with a traditional written exam at the end of third year, a new “junior cycle profile of achievement” will give parents a broader and clearer picture of their child’s progress , according to the Department of Education.

Despite the ASTI ban on teachers playing any role in classroom-based assessments, all teachers will be required to teach the new junior cycle curriculum but will not have had the benefit of training.

Concerns

ASTI members narrowly rejected the new junior cycle in a ballot of its members in September 2015, based on a turnout of 38 per cent.

The union says its outstanding concerns include the lack of an externally assessed oral exam in modern languages and Irish.

The Department of Education says the ASTI’s ban put teachers and students at a risk of disadvantage.

“The department remains willing to support the ASTI in achieving the positive support of their members for the agreement that was reached last year and thereby ensuring that all students can complete all aspects of the new junior.”