Government money would be better spent to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio than on tribunals of inquiry and ministerial cars and helicopters, the TUI congress heard.
Mr Paul Murray, a Co Offaly delegate, said a reduced ratio would give students better subject choices as well as being of benefit to teachers.
He was proposing a motion that instructed the executive to negotiate an improvement in the pupil-teacher ratio.
A Co Dublin delegate, Ms Una Twyford, said an improvement in the ratio would reduce stress and have a bearing on the early retirement issue. The economic difficulties of the early 1980s had led to an increase in the ratio. These difficulties had been replaced by the Celtic Tiger, and it was now time for the tiger to look after its cubs, she added.
Mr Martin Hoye, principal of O'Carolan College, Nobber, Co Meath, said teachers were taking a risk with large classes in labs and practical rooms for such subjects as home economics and metalwork. He asked the Minister to reverse the "lousy decision" of 1983.
The motion, which was carried, stated: "The pupil teacher ratio was increased in 1983 to take account of difficulties in the economy. This increase severely disadvantaged students in our schools. Congress instructs the executive to actively negotiate an improvement in the PTR (pupil-teacher ratio) to 16 to one."
Mr Paul Glynn, a Co Waterford delegate, proposed a motion asking for paid substitution for teachers and lecturers absent from classes on in-service courses, Department of Education business, VEC business, illness or extra-curricular activities. "These absences are frequently and necessarily incurred, and it's a ludicrous situation that school management can be left desperately juggling resources to try and cover classes for absent teachers engaged in valuable non-teaching activities," he said.
Ms Deirdre Cadden, a Co Dublin delegate, said teachers had to beg their colleagues, week in week out, to take classes so that they could bring a group of students, a team or a class to an event outside the school. "In the present climate, where some people are prepared to sue a school or a teacher for the slightest reason, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get anyone to bring students outside the school," she said. If paid substitution was not provided, the pool of people willing to bring students outside the classroom would dwindle away. Ms Eilish Coughlan, of Dublin City Post Primary branch, asked delegates to consider the "horrible vista" of a year in an average 30teacher school with each teacher taking all of their uncertified sick leave. The principal would face 210 full teacher days with classes to be covered and no paid substitution.
"From my knowledge, classes are dismantled, students are let go early, they are unsupervised or they are doubled up. Management may take classes or management may have to massage sick certs in an attempt to cover the substitution.
The Department of Education is not recognising a real problem." The motion, which was carried, asked the union to negotiate in consultation with the other teacher unions for paid substitution for teachers and lecturers necessarily absent from class.
The congress was told that pupils and teachers are at risk of contracting illness from dust from dangerous substances used in woodwork and construction studies. The executive was instructed to seek a comprehensive study on practical rooms in schools and colleges, focusing on dust extraction and ventilation.
The motion, from counties Clare and Cork, asks that the findings of the study by the Department of Education be implemented immediately.
A spokesman for the Department said it had issued a circular to all schools about the use and storage of dangerous materials.