One of the most unjust and longstanding anomalies in teaching may soon be partially resolved. Last month, after nearly eight years, the public service arbitration board ruled on the TUI claim for teachers' pay and conditions for full-time Youthreach workers.
Youthreach is the EU-funded project for nearly 7,000 15- to 18-year-olds who have dropped out of school early or left without qualifications. The students are taught an extraordinary range of subjects: from basic literacy and computers, through mainstream subjects, to art, craft and sport.
However, the Department of Education and Science, under pressure from the Department of Finance, has always refused to recognise the right of Youthreach teachers to the same pay and conditions as other second-level teachers. Until now a Youthreach centre co-ordinator - in effect a principal with between 20 and 100 students - has been paid a fixed salary of £18,500 with no increments. He or she has a year-to-year contract, with no pension or promotion prospects.
A Youthreach centre resource person, in effect the vice-principal, has been paid £14,800. In contrast, a second-level teacher has an incremental salary of up to £28,000, a permanent job and pension. Youthreach teachers work a 35-hour week over a 46- to 48-week year. Mainstream second-level teachers work a 26- to 28-hour week over a 34-week year.
There are 550 Youthreach teachers, 75 of them co-ordinators and 107 resource persons. Others are part-timers paid the equivalent of a teacher's hourly rate.
Last month's award means that co-ordinators will get a maximum annual salary of £26,000 and resource persons a maximum of £23,800. They will also get between £9,500 and £11,000 back pay - and will be paid an annual degree allowance of £1,500 with lower amounts for diplomas and certificates.
Two key anomalies remain: Youthreach workers have not been recognised as teachers; and they have not been offered the kind of permanent employment teachers enjoy. EU funding runs out at the end of the year. The Department has given private undertakings to continue it, but who knows what funding levels will be or how long programmes will run?
It's ironic that the recent EU White Paper on education urged that so-called "second chance" schools and school projects should employ the best teachers on the highest wages. The Government, despite all its talk about targetting disadvantage, has chosen to discourage the best teachers from coming into Youthreach by continuing to pay them less and make them work under worse conditions.
