O'Toole sets out INTO's stall

The INTO underlined its distance from the ASTI when it made its submission to the Public Services Benchmarking Body last week.

The general secretary of the primary-teachers' union, Senator Joe O'Toole, said the submission set out "the key supporting arguments for the INTO claim for improved rewards and career structures". Among its arguments is a comparison between the amount of classroom time spent in teacher-training college with time spent in other third-level courses. Independent research found, according to the INTO, that the B.Ed student's working year is significantly longer.

The benchmarking submission also focused on primary teachers' role in extracurricular activity, and on the growing discrepancy between teachers' salaries and private-sector pay.

With its submission, the union attached a long list of claims relating to pay and promotion.

However, the union's assistant general secretary, Catherine Byrne, signalled that the INTO's support for benchmarking should not be taken for granted. Speaking to teachers in Tallaght, Co Dublin, she said: "Having put their trust in the benchmarking process, primary teachers now are rightly demanding that all the parties involved in benchmarking should speed up their work so that the increases that are long overdue to teachers will be delivered sooner rather than later.

"It would be a serious mistake for the Minister and the Government to take our support for granted and assume that we will go along with the outcome, irrespective of the results for our members," she said. "If the benchmarking system is to maintain the confidence and support of INTO members, it will have to demonstrate that it appreciates the full extent of the contribution of primary teachers and is prepared to reward that contribution fairly."