EXAMS:TEACHERS ARE being forced to sign off on school projects for State examinations that too often have been compiled by students' parents, the ASTI conference was told.
As delegates yesterday voted for teachers to no longer have to sign off on project work on State examinations, they also raised concerns about the possibility that teachers may be asked to examine their own students in oral examinations.
One delegate said it was clear that in some cases, students were returning home and telling their mother that they had a project to complete, but it was their "mammy" who often stayed up all night putting this together.
"How many good project mammys and good project daddies are we as teachers being asked to sign off?" he asked.
His feelings were echoed by another contributor, who claimed that grind schools were "stuffing out projects left, right and centre . . . it's hugely unfair."
On the separate issue of teachers examining their students for oral examinations, ASTI president-elect Pat Hurley said that there was a "good reason" why teachers don't assess their students for State examinations.
"We don't judge our students," he said. "It would break our relationship with students."
His colleague and former ASTI president Susie Hall asked: "How fair and impartial can it be when a student is being assessed by its own teacher? Let's look at it realistically, it's impossible to say that you would look at it objectively . . . so we're not going there."
Yesterday's conference also discussed the findings of a recent ASTI survey that found that three out of five teachers had experienced work-related bullying in the course of their teaching career. One in 10 said this included physical and sexual harassment.
According to the survey of 235 second-level teachers, conducted by Millward Brown IMS on the union's behalf, 61 per cent of respondents said they had experienced such bullying. About one in 10 said they had been subjected to physical abuse such as assault and pushing, while 13 per cent said they had been sexually harassed.
Typical examples of such behaviour included unwanted conduct of a sexual nature or other conduct based on a person's gender.
More than three out of five male teachers and one in 10 female teachers who answered "yes" to this question said the bullying had been at the hands of a student.
Following a discussion of this issue, delegates voted to adopt a Health and Safety Authority charter, which the union hopes to see displayed in every school.