THE TUI congress passed an emergency motion yesterday expressing grave concern at aspects of the Education Bill. The motion also condemned the failure of the Minister, Ms Breathnach, and her Department to consult with the TUI during the first two stages of the Bill.
Its president, Ms Alice Prendergast, said the union would be "demanding full consultation with teachers unions about matters of concern to us, particularly changes of conditions".
"We will be demanding elimination of wasteful competition between schools. We will be demanding the continuation of protection afforded to members by the 1930 VEC Act with respect to security of employment."
The TUI does, however, agree with devolution, decentralisation and the establishment of regional education boards. Ms Prendergast said the boards would eliminate wasteful competition between schools and introduce a coherent plan for all schools in an area.
The emergency motion endorsed the provisions of a TUI document, published yesterday, which outlined the union's response to the Education Bill and proposed some amendments. The paper calls for amendments to [protect TUI members conditions, to protect the public sector, and to promote the involvement of teachers in decision making.
The TUI wants sections of the Bill involving work practices to be amended by the phrase "subject to negotiation and agreement with recognised trade unions rep"resenting teachers". While the TUI welcomed the provisions of the Bill which imply continuity of employer for teachers in vocational and community and comprehensive schools, it wants these provisions to be strengthened. The sections which transfer the functions of the Minister, under the VEC Acts 1930 to 1970, to education boards must be amended so that recourse to the Minister continues to be necessary in cases of dismissal, says the document.
The TUI said it was concerned that there was no specific mention of community and comprehensive schools in the Bill. "The TUI will seek clarification on the implications of the Bill for community and comprehensive schools and on the status of the deed of trust. We will ensure that these schools continue to constitute a distinctive sector."
Other amendments propose to protect the privacy of students and teachers in the publication of reports and to ensure teachers" involvement in curricular decision making.
A motion calling for industrial action if the Department of Education "insisted on ignoring serious indiscipline problems in some schools" was carried.
Meanwhile, the TUI general secretary, Mr Jim Dorney, has reacted angrily to an advertisement placed by the Secretariat of Secondary Schools in yesterday's national newspapers. The advert said the management of voluntary - secondary schools overwhelmingly rejects Government proposals which fail to address in school management, substitution and supervision needs.
Describing the secretariat as "whinging and sulking", Mr Dorney said "after 18 months of long and difficult negotiations, the teacher unions reached agreement with the Government Departments of Education and Finance. For one of the parties now to talk in public when they have not achieved the entirety of their objectives is sour grapes."
Mr Dorney described the PCW agreement for teachers as fair and in the interests of both students and teachers. "For our part, we will be calling for the early and full implementation of the PCW deal."
He welcomed the announcement by the Fianna Fail spokesman on Education, Mr Micheal Martin, that his party was making a commitment that post Leaving Cert students would be eligible to apply for maintenance grants under the Higher Education Authority grants scheme from next year. This would cost an estimated £13 million, said Mr Martin. Three are currently 18,000 students on post Leaving Cert courses.
Mr Martin also said Fianna Fail would attempt to introduce a new section to the Education Bill, which would put the whole area of further education on a statutory basis.
He said that he would ensure that money from the EU third level capital programme would be spent before 1999, when the programme comes to and end, and that some of this money would go to PLC colleges.