Job-shares a success, but INTO wants scheme extended

THE FINDINGS of an INTO survey on the pilot job-sharing scheme has found that both teachers and parents are, very satisfied with the way the scheme is running. There are a total of 30 primary school teachers job-sharing, 24 in main stream schools and six in special schools.

The pilot will run for two years and only teachers who were approved to commence job-sharing in 1996 but were unable to do so at the time due to the delay in granting ministerial sanction may commence job-sharing in 1996.

No new projects or additional teachers will be included until the Department's evaluation of the current pilot scheme has been considered by the partners in education. The INTO would have liked to see the scheme extended this year.

Teachers participating in the pilot pointed out the advantages of working as a team. One Dublin teacher is quoted in the INTO survey as saying that "the input from both teachers adds up to more than half a job, but the benefits gained make it all very worthwhile".

Another teacher spoke of the need to be organised and efficient because the other teacher has to be able to find everything. Some parents who originally expressed concerns about the working of the scheme are now acknowledging that their children are benefiting from the energy and expertise of two teachers rather than one, according to the survey.

Anne McElduff, a senior official with the INTO, says that the union is very concerned that teachers in, smaller schools are effectively excluded from the scheme; the Department of Education will only allow two permanent teachers in the same school to job-share. The guidelines preclude principals and vice-principals from job-sharing.

"If you take a four- or five-teacher school, the chances of getting another partner in that school are very low. It's virtually impossible for anybody in a Church of Ireland school to job-share," McElduff says. The union has raised the matter with the Department of Education.

McElduff would like to see more flexibility. If a teacher in a small school can't find a partner, the union would like a temporary teacher to be appointed to job-share, subject to local agreement. She says that there are situations where a permanent teacher has gone on two years' leave of absence and would like to job-share on return. "The temporary teacher is already known to the school and the class," she says.

"I think that we need to look at the situation where there are two schools on one campus or two rural schools within easy reach. The two teachers could job-share and a temporary teacher be appointed to the other school," she says. The present ban on home-school liaison and. remedial teachers job-sharing, should be lifted McElduff says.

In particular, remedial teaching would lend itself to job-sharing, as many of these teachers are already shared between a number of pupils, she adds.

Job-sharing teachers enjoy same pro-rata salary, but McElduff says that there are a number of conditions of service, such as sick leave, that need to be ironed out. The INTO is in ongoing discussions with the Department of Education about these issues.