Sean Higgins: Tribute to a teacher

Sean Higgins, who died on Saturday, January 26th following a long illness, was president of the ASTI from 1994 to 1995. He had received the endorsement of the ASTI for his candidature on the NUI panel for Seanad Éireann, but withdrew last December because of illness.

The central importance of committed, enthusiastic, well-remunerated teachers to the well-being of the education service was at the heart of his educational and trade union beliefs.

Sean represented the ASTI on the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment from 1995 to 2001. During this period, he supported important developments in the curriculum which enhanced the well-being of pupils in second-level schools, including the introduction of the Leaving Certificate Applied, the development of the Leaving Cert Vocational Programme and the extension of the Junior Cert School Programme. He was chairperson of the French syllabus committee which prepared the new communicative syllabus for Leaving Cert, despite some opposition. Indeed, such was Sean's high reputation among teachers that these developments were introduced to the education service in a relatively non-contentious atmosphere.

The members of the NCCA recognised Sean as a person who represented teachers in a cogent, rational manner, but who always recognised that education was a partnership between parents, school managers and the department. This attitude generated great respect, which in turn meant that the teachers' view was rarely overruled.

Sean spent 27 years as a teacher in St Mary's Diocesan School (formerly CBS) in Drogheda, Co Louth. He was a much loved teacher - a fact manifested in the vast numbers of former pupils who attended his funeral.

He invested his great creative energies in the development of the Transition Year in his school. Indeed, during his last spell in hospital, he was observed marking a legal studies assignment he had set his pupils. He fought long and hard to obtain the fine new school buildings that St Mary's now enjoys.

Sean first became aware of his illness in the winter of 1991. He bore it with grace and fortitude, never complaining and always ready to assist fellow sufferers. During his presidential year, he was hospitalised on a number of occasions and indeed his attendance at the annual convention was in doubt up to the last minute. The last ASTI committee meeting he attended was in relation to sick-leave arrangements for teachers.

Sean Higgins was a person of transparent integrity who eschewed the cabals and plots which can besmirch trade unionism. He believed in teachers, in the value of education and in fairness. His colleagues in the ASTI, his fellow teachers and his pupils will remember him with gratitude. His wife Mary, his children Tim and Ruth, his mother Phyllis and his extended family have the consolation of knowing that he was a good man.

• John White, deputy general secretary, ASTI