Teachers boycott training as junior cycle protest escalates

The first of a series of pickets of teacher training centres took place on Monday to obstruct the roll-out of the new junior cycle programme.

Members of the ASTI and TUI, which together represent 27,000 secondary teachers, picketed both the Monaghan and Sligo Education Centres which were the first to host continuing professional development (CPD) for teachers under the new programme.

No teachers crossed the picket line at the Monaghan centre but the department of education said a number of teachers did attended training in Sligo.

An ASTI spokeswoman said it was understood these individuals were not members of either union, and they were also very small in number.

A TUI spokesman said if anyone did attend training they were not witnessed crossing the picket line and may have used another entrance to the centre.

In a statement, the department added it was “concerned that the unions are impeding members’ access to professional development opportunities, given that the unions have specifically highlighted members’ requests for such development opportunities.

"The scheduled Junior Cycle training will be continued to be rolled out. The Minister also repeated her strongly held view that both unions suspend industrial action and allow members attend training," the department said.

However, the ASTI and TUI issued a joint statement at their annual conferences last week urging members to “hold firm” in their industrial action.

English is the first subject to come under the new junior cycle programme, and its teachers have been allocated up to 16 days CPD as the reforms are rolled out over several years.

Minister for Education Jan O’Sullivan said last week she hoped teachers “will come in numbers” to attend CPD. “I think that your decision to prevent your members accessing professional learning sits uneasily with the real commitment that I know you have to an openness to knowledge and learning,” she told the TUI conference.

Further pickets are planned for education centres over the next fortnight, and a lunchtime protest is due to be staged also at all secondary schools at a date to be agreed.

The two unions are also refusing to cooperate with the introduction of new short courses in subjects such as coding, as well as any planning for the new junior cycle curriculum.