ASTI orders teachers to boycott junior cycle training

The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) has ordered its members to boycott training for the new junior cycle programme, after voting narrowly to reject the latest reform plan this week.

The union’s standing committee will reissue its industrial action directive on non-cooperation with the junior cycle including non-attendance at continuing professional development and non-engagement with any aspect of school-based assessment, ASTI said in a statement.

ASTI president Máire Ní Chiarba said: “Teachers, the practitioners in the classroom, understand how best to improve teaching and learning.

“Their concerns are very real and we intend to ensure they are addressed.”

The union’s stance is expected to harden in the weeks ahead as it appoints a new general secretary, replacing Pat King.

The front-runner for the €140,000 a year job is Kieran Christie, a Co Sligo-based former ASTI national organiser .

The ASTI’s 180-member central executive committee meets on Saturday to hear the outcome of the appointment process.

Mr Christie is a teacher at St Attracta’s Community School, Tubbercurry of technical graphics, construction studies and the Junior Cycle subject ofmaterials technology (wood). He has served as a union representative on the Teaching Council where he earned a reputation for strongly defending ASTI interests against council director Tomás Ó Ruairc.

There has been some controversy over the ASTI appointment procedure, with the adoption of the 10-person interview board composed of five internal officers and five teachers who were elected to the panel.

There was no external panellist and few of the ten had any management experience.

Mr King steps down as general secretary at the end of this year and his successor will start in January.

The ASTI’s 23-member standing committee made the decision to resume industrial action at a meeting yesterday, a day after the announcement of the ballot result.

Just 38 per cent of ASTI members voted, with 55 per cent against the deal and 45 per cent in favour.

The three most senior elected officials in the union had put their names to the deal, including Ms Ní Chiarba, but it went to ballot without a formal recommendation.

In contrast, Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) recommended acceptance and saw its ballot passed by a 2-1 majority with a 60 per cent turnout.

Ms Ní Chiarba said the union would engage intensively with its members on the issues of most concern to them. However, there are no plans for further talks with the Department of Education and Skills.

Students who have begun the second year of post-primary school this month are due to undergo the first classroom-based assessment next Spring.

They now face the prospect of being assessed by teachers who are unqualified to operate the new scheme.

The department has agreed to provide 16 in-service training days to the average teacher during the rollout of the reforms. Under the deal, full-time teachers would also have one less class a week to facilitate planning and meetings for the new curriculum.

Earlier, Minister for Education and Skills Jan O’Sullivan said she hoped the ASTI would find a way to agreeing to implement the changes.

Speaking in Limerick, she said: “It is a reform that is absolutely necessary for the young people of Ireland and it is one that is being talked about for decades now.

“It has already started for students of English in our schools and the students have to be central to all of this.”