Look after teachers and you look after the heart of education

The ASTI dispute has highlighted how teachers need genuine support fromgovernment and the wider society, argues Charlie Lennon, general secretary of the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland

Teachers are at the heart of any school system. Their contribution makes it successful or otherwise. Ireland's now internationally recognised high-quality education service is built on the hard work of such teachers. Their role and the difficulties which they face must be recognised. The ASTI dispute has highlighted the fact that teachers need genuine support from the Government and from society, both in their pay and in the level of professional support provided, if they are to continue to deliver this service.

The proposal to establish a Teaching Commission would provide an opportunity for those involved in the delivery of the education service to air their concerns and explore the need for society to understand, value and support the role of teachers and schools and how this can be achieved.

The enactment of legislation to establish the Teaching Council will also enhance the professional status of teachers by providing them with a body through which they can assert their professional role.

Issues such as the ever-expanding role of the teacher, the changing climate of schools, the pace of change in education, teacher workload, the emergence of new social problems amongst young people which impact on their education, and the need for supports and resources for teaching in schools must be addressed as a matter or urgency if we are to maintain our excellent education service.

Last month, second-level teachers who are members of the ASTI voted to accept the Government's pay offer for voluntary supervision and substitution duties in schools. The issue of supervision and substitution emerged many years ago and school-management bodies had long been calling for payment for teachers undertaking this work. The extent to which Irish schools depend on the goodwill of teachers became apparent in the year 2000 when ASTI members withdrew from voluntary supervision and substitution. Most schools had to shut down. Two years later, the end result is that the majority of teachers from the three teacher unions have accepted a pay offer for these duties.

In a separate ballot during November, ASTI members voted to discontinue their ban on the introduction of new syllabi and programmes. This form of industrial action, part of the ASTI's pay campaign, sought to highlight the fact that teachers are key players in the continual modernisation of Irish second-level education. Teachers give ongoing productivity by implementing new syllabi and programmes and introducing new subjects and new teaching and learning methods in their schools. Teachers believe this work should be reflected in their pay.

However, the action of banning the introduction of new syllabi caused some concern amongst the teachers of new subjects being introduced this year. This led to ASTI members voting to suspend the ban. Despite this decision, there is still great concern that the ongoing transformation of the second-level sector is being left to teachers who clearly are neither receiving recognition for this work in their pay or the resources and supports available to them.

Recent OECD reports confirm what many in the education sector have known for a long time - Ireland's high-quality education service runs on a shoestring budget. Last year, an OECD study of literacy levels amongst 15-year-olds ranked Ireland fifth out of 27 countries in reading literacy tasks. Irish students also outperformed most of their international counterparts in scientific literacy tasks. Some months later, another OECD report placed Ireland near the bottom of the league in relation to funding per second-level student. What this means is that while our teachers work to ensure young people have access to quality educational opportunities, they face barriers on a daily basis including large class sizes, high workload, lack of educational and other facilities, lack of specialist resources and supports, and poor professional development opportunities.

This is the climate in which ASTI members found themselves when they decided to embark on a campaign for a pay increase. A profession whose members justifiably felt undervalued faced into a two-year dispute in which the Government - their paymaster - refused to deal with the issues fuelling their campaign. And while the Government and other commentators have continued to maintain that the ASTI pay claim cannot be addressed outside the confines of a national wage agreement, the question must be asked as to why issues vital to the future of Irish education were sidelined by key groups including sections of the media. Instead, the focus was on the ASTI's "go it alone" stance.

Parents' groups, media commentators and the Minister for Education have acknowledged that supporting teachers also involves paying them properly. The ASTI will continue its campaign for a significant increase in salary. The gap between teachers' pay and that of comparable professionals has been highlighted by the ASTI and has been confirmed by numerous reports. There must be recognition in pay for all the activities in which teachers engage. It is widely acknowledged that investment in education is the key to developing Ireland's competitive advantage in the knowledge-based economy. The role schools play in the life chances of young people must not be underestimated.