Conferences end with a whimper as teachers draw breath

Given the long hiatus since their last gatherings, many expected the resumption of teachers’ conferences in the flesh this week would be fiery and acrimonious affairs.

There has been no shortage of flashpoints in recent times: pay not keeping up with runaway inflation; the removal of contact-tracing in schools; the mantra that ‘schools are safe’; acute shortages of substitute teachers. The list goes on.

Yet, by comparison to normal years, the atmosphere at the three teachers’ conferences was flatter.

“Teacher conferences are bit like weddings,” said one delegate who took to floor of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation congress, hoping to exhort more colleagues to speak out. “You can’t complain about it if you don’t get up to dance.”

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In the end, dark mutterings about industrial action and motions to strike over the need for urgent pay increases evaporated or were shelved as the conferences got underway.

Even the Minister for Education got off lightly.

Teachers’ annual gatherings are typically dreaded by ministers, where the reception ranges from frosty to outright hostile.

Norma Foley, however, was greeted with respectful and polite applause at all three conferences.

The closest things got to getting testy was on the issue of Leaving Cert reform.

There were some heckles at the ASTI (Association of Teachers’ of Ireland) conference and posters were held up in protest at the TUI (Teachers’ Union of Ireland) gathering, but that was about it.

Simon Harris, in his capacity as Minister for Further and Higher Education, received a reception bordering on rapturous at the TUI gathering, according to some observers.

“I’ve never seen a minister get that kind of response in 10 years of attending these conferences,” said one attendee. “People were queuing up for selfies afterwards.”

So, what gives?

The pay issue - teachers’ demands for inflation-matching pay increases to compensate for the rising cost of living - failed to take off because the process to address this is already underway.

In some neat choreography, public sector unions met with the Department of Public Expenditure just days before the conferences got underway, where officials made their case for significant pay increases.

It didn’t make sense for unions to start balloting for industrial action when the process had barely started.

In addition, unions received good news over long-standing sources of complaint in the run-up to conference week.

Under a sectoral bargaining process, thousands of primary principals and deputies received pay increases (ranging from €1,750 to €3,200) and about 1,400 middle-management posts were restored.

At second level, the two-tier pay gap between teachers hired since 2011 and their longer-serving colleagues is to narrow significantly following agreement to restore the equivalent of the old HDip allowance worth about €1,300 a year.

These measures all contributed to taking much of the heat out of the pay issue and kicking issues to touch for another day.

One delegate, however, had a more prosaic explanation for the restrained atmosphere.

“We’re exhausted, really,” said one principal. “It’s all been about keeping schools open, keeping pupils in class ... so, it’s been nice just to meet with colleagues this week and draw breath for the first time in ages.”