Classroom Central: INTO and TUI Easter conferences

Welcome to this edition of Classroom Central digest! In this issue, Irish Times writers and contributors look at what transpired at the teacher’s conferences over the Easter break. We asked teachers at two conferences if teachers would support a ‘Dublin allowance’ for colleagues facing higher costs. We also look at other issues raised at the conferences including calls for a restoration of the eviction ban, the latest on the public sector pay game, school bus services and more. Elsewhere, the historian Kerron Ó Luain looks at 50 years of the Gaelscoil movement. Students will soon have fourteen new degree courses available to them outside the traditional CAO system after “groundbreaking” degree courses are to be made available outside the CAO points race in areas such as nursing, computer science, engineering and business.

‘Dublin allowance’: The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) has backed calls for an extra payment to members in Dublin and other urban areas to compensate them for facing higher living costs. This type of additional payment has traditionally been resisted by trade unions, who had been unwilling to draw a geographic distinction between their members and because of the practical challenges of implementing any such decision. We asked delegates at the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) and Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (Asti) conferences if they agreed with the idea.

Teachers back call for restoration of eviction ban: A call for the restoration of the no-fault eviction ban, which ended at the start of this month, has been backed by delegates at the Teachers’ Union of Ireland conference in Cork.

Mica crisis: Mica crisis blighting lives of students and teachers, TUI conference hears: Donegal teachers tell of ‘waking nightmare’ of homes that are ‘draughty, damp, depressing and above all dangerous.

Pay deal for school secretaries: Pay deal will see thousands of school secretaries receive back pay of up to €5,000: Almost 3,000 school secretaries are to receive back pay worth up to €5,000 later this year after signing up to new contracts. Under the new pay deal, agreed in 2021, secretaries are being placed on the public service clerical officer scale, bringing an end to a 40-year-old, two-tier pay system.

Public sector pay: Public sector pay game is now afoot but deal over summer seems unlikely: If it’s Easter, it’s time for the teachers’ unions annual conferences. And if it’s time for the teachers’ conferences, it’s time for calls for pay increases. Some things you can set your watch by, writes Pat Leahy.

Tendering requirements: Tendering requirements for buses and office supplies undermining schools’ community status, TUI delegates told: A requirement for the likes of bus services and office supplies to be subject to tendering processes, in line with Government procurement policies, is damaging relations between schools and local communities, delegates at the TUI conference in Cork have been told.

Gaelscolaíocht: Gluaiseacht a spreag mórtas teanga le caoga bliain anuas: Cothrom an ama seo leathchéad bliain ó shin bunaíodh an eagraíocht Gaeloideachas, nó Comhchoiste Náisiúnta na Scoileanna Lán-Ghaeilge mar a tugadh air nuair a tháinig sé ar an bhfód i gColáiste Mhuire, Baile Átha Cliath, ar an 4 Aibreán 1973.

Fourteen new degree courses to be unveiled outside CAO points race: New details of “groundbreaking” degree courses outside the CAO points race in areas such as nursing, computer science, engineering and business are due to be announced on Wednesday. The move is part of a drive to create alternative pathways to third level without the need to secure high points.