Performance in the packet?

Performance-related pay for teachers is being hotly debated in Britain, but there's little mention of it here.

Not a real issue in this State, you say? Well, according to a number of trade unionists, it's an item that should be at the top of our education agenda right now, because it's likely to be introduced into our schools in the relatively near future. There's a very real fear among union activists that performance-related pay for all teachers is being ushered in by the back door and questions about its appropriateness in our education system and its effect on our schools will go unexamined.

"The business of putting performance-related pay into first- and second-level schools in Britain is the subject of lively debate," says Paddy Healy, a former TUI honorary secretary. However, "in Ireland it's being smuggled in through a change in the negotiating machinery - that is the teacher conciliation and arbitration scheme," he says.

Both the INTO and the ASTI have voted in favour of the new scheme. The TUI, however, will vote on it later this month.

According to ASTI president Bernadine O'Sullivan, when the new conciliation and arbitration scheme was being approved, no link between it and performance-related pay was envisaged. ASTI members would be opposed to such a method.

"How do you measure performance in education?" she asks. "What exactly is to be measured? It's not possible to measure and evaluate the relationship between teacher and student.

"In industry you have a product which can be measured. But what will we be measuring - if students come from broken homes where little value is put on education and they don't do their homework and miss school regularly - how do you include that in the equation?"

O'Sullivan points to an emerging culture where the student is king and the teacher is under constant threat.

"People don't acknowledge the problems that some children present. Parents want their children to do well in the Leaving Cert and they can't understand why success can't be bought. The Leaving Cert is the only thing that's objective and fair."

The types of performance indicators used apart, teachers are concerned that their performance-related pay reviews will be conducted by principals and vice-principals. This would change relationships within schools - principals, for example, have always been regarded as the "first among equals".

"Performance related pay will break our unifying purpose and will set teacher against teacher," comments O'Sullivan. "Will they want to measure the spiritual, emotional and social performances of students or will it simply be the academic?" asks one teacher.

LEAVING teachers' views aside, would performance-related pay be good for education? No, says NUI Maynooth's Professor John Coolahan. There's nothing new about performance-related pay in the education system, he notes. In 19th-century Ireland, teachers were paid by results. "Ireland has already had a very significant dose of performance-related pay. It was very destructive in that a narrow rigid approach to education developed. Teachers focused on exam results and the system became very mechanical. The qualitative aspects of education were ignored."

Performance-related pay also goes against the grain of the White Paper on Education and the Education Act, he argues. These propose a style of school development based on team work, whole-school planning and reporting and close involvement with parents.

"I am worried about the contradiction. If you introduce performance-related pay, you're working from a different position and putting all the emphasis on the individual teacher. You will encourage rivalries and dissensions within staff. Teamwork will be harder to develop." Coolahan also argues that the tools and mechanisms used in performance evaluation are insufficiently developed. "We only have what is largely endof-year written exam performance - and we are aware of the huge problems with these, because so much depends on them."

As it is, the inspectorate is understaffed and too stretched to play a role in performance-related pay. `'If we want to lift our sights and improve teaching standards, we should use the Teaching Council. It will take us 10 or 12 years' hard work to establish a culture of school collaboration, but that's the way to go. I would hate to see the 21st century going back to a 19th century ideology and approach."

Eugene Wall, an educational psychologist at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, agrees. "It's very difficult to get an objective index on how people will be evaluated," he says. "If you don't get that, it will be disputatious and a source of dissension and friction.

"Performance-related pay can create an element of divisiveness and a culture of envy. It would be difficult to develop a system which would be transparent and fair. Who would carry out the evaluations? Would it be the inspector or the principal?

"Half of our schools consist of four or fewer teachers. It's wildly idealistic to assume that the principal could carry out the evaluations in this situation. It would be difficult to maintain good relations."

Although many teachers are opposed to performance-related pay - the TUI specifically voted against it at last year's congress - the INTO has come out in favour of it. INTO general secretary Joe O'Toole takes a positive approach to performance-related pay. He told the INTO's annual congress that performance-related pay could lead to a brand new approach to pay determination.

"We must be ready to counter its worst excesses as well as exploring it for avenues of exploitation. Aspects of PRP include group incentives, additional payments for skills or knowledge, payment paid for taking on additional responsibility and payment based on individual assessment."

In the September issue of In Touch (the INTO's education magazine), O'Toole asked: "For how long can the differences between the public and private sector hold? It is almost inevitable that sooner or later, officialdom will offer a deal along the lines of `Well, we might be prepared to offer more money if your people are prepared to adopt some private sector conditions.'

"If they do, our response will have to be `How much are you offering and what is it worth?' And unlikely as it seems, they just might make it worth our while to have a look."

Nora Hamill, who teaches at St Kevin's National School, Donaghmede, Co Dublin, takes issue with these views. "I think the unions should be looking at the broader ramifications of pay-related performance," she says.

"There's tremendous good will and morale among Irish teachers compared with English teachers. Performance-related pay will undermine that." Hamill, too, is concerned about the legacy O'Toole will leave once he quits the INTO. "I've always had a great admiration for him. It would be a shame if his legacy to teaching was to introduce the concept of productivity. I can't understand where he's coming from."

THERE'S CONCERN among union activists that the union leadership and union membership are growing increasingly apart. There's a perception among some teachers that union executives have lost touch with the grassroots and are busily pursuing their own agendas.

According to Paddy Healy, the principal of performance management cannot be applied to education. "It's being applied in situations which can be measured and also in sensitive situations where you are dealing with people - education, the health service, the Garda, the army.

"It's also a trend in Britain - it's already being applied to an extent at third level there. All the vibes are that it is a disaster."