Does bullying rate a commission, asks TUI president

"The frustration is that discipline problems are increasing throughout schools and nobody has grasped the nettle because individual schools are ashamed to admit they have problems in case they put off prospective pupils."

One year into office as TUI president, Alice Prendergast is still in fast, furious vocal flow as she explains that this applies to all schools - secondary, comprehensive, community and vocational. "Although we, as a union, are pledged to teach the disadvantaged, it doesn't mean that we can allow our teachers to become disadvantaged."

While pay has improved for teachers, conditions at work have disimproved, she says. Teachers would be prepared to consider all sorts of innovative, imaginative projects to counter the sense of frustration they feel at facing very difficult students everyday.

Allegations of sexual impropriety against teachers are becoming more prevalent and, in many cases, are spurious, she says. While students must be protected, a better procedure for dealing with complaints is needed. Any such procedure should safeguard the good name of the teacher while being processed, she adds.

It's not just students who are exercising Prendergast's mind. People in positions of authority in schools are bullying their colleagues, she says; there's quite an amount of it going on. In this season of proliferating ministerial commissions, what about a commission on bullying, Minister, she asks.

Prendergast became the first woman president of the TUI in July 1996. Many of the items that were high on her election manifesto in 1994 when she fought to become vice-president have been resolved. The infamous PCW negotiations ate up much of her (and other union teacher union officials') time and energy. "The PCW is gone but not forgotten," she says.

There are still some outstanding areas of concern. There are still no permanent positions in travellers' training centres and VTOS schemes, she says. And there is still no circular letter increasing the allowances for post-holders, while principals and vice-principals have yet to get any dividend from the PCW. A lot of people have been critical of the Department of Education for dragging its heels but, since she became president, Prendergast says she has realised that the Department is grossly understaffed. On completion of the PCW talks, extra staff should have been allocated to Dublin and Athlone because the workload has tripled for those in the second-level section, she says.

"Strange though it may seem, halfway through Partnership 2000, PCW for third-level has yet to achieved." But, she reckons the process is almost there.

Her 1994 shopping list included agreed promotional structures for teachers and lecturers. There has been an improvement at second level and the union is now engaged in third-level talks, she says. As to permanent appointments, up to 95 per cent has been agreed at second level through the PCW, she says. Early retirement has come into being and the specialist teachers claim has finally been laid to rest.

In an interview with E&L soon after her appointment as president, Prendergast outlined her concerns about the appointments system in VECs. That has been changed and the influence of individual VEC members has been considerably reduced, she says. "And, so, for once and for all, the allegations of political interference can no longer be made."

On the down side, the TUI is very disappointed that maintenance grants have not been extended to Post Leaving Certificate students this year. Fianna Fail, in its pre-election manifesto, promised grants for PLC students but they have yet to materialise.

The USI seems reluctant to admit PLC students as members yet the USI its members sit, as student representatives, on boards for the National Council for Vocational Awards, says Prendergast. "We feel that it would be very helpful if the students were organised in a co-ordinated fashion. There is quite a dis-spirited group of young people around with no organisation to represent them."

The White Paper on Education is starting again from scratch, she says, so she hopes that there won't be another change of Government soon. "The political agenda changes but education remains the same. Teachers and students require legislation to be kept up to date, not going from Green Paper to White Paper with no result."

However, she says "we, in the vocational sector, feel that we have a sympathetic Minister who has been chairman of Cork City VEC committee. He has a long-time interest in the PLC area and has been involved in Cork RTC on the board of management."

The TUI is the only teacher union which routinely rotates its presidency on a two-yearly basis. ASTI and INTO presidents usually have only one year to make their mark.

Prendergast's enthusiasm for the job seems undiminished after a year spent wrestling with education's sacred cow - the PCW. If anything, her rapid-fire conversational style seems to have become even more fluent. Her sentences appear pre-formed; there is no groping for words, no hesitation.

And she still has almost a year left to chivy the new Minister into acceding to the TUI's demands. What odds that commission on bullying?