This month, more than 70,000 teachers pay their annual €90 registration fee to the Teaching Council, the regulatory body for the professsion. But what does the council actually do – and how does it spend this money?
IT’S HARD TO find a teacher with a good word to say about the Teaching Council. Set up in 2006 to regulate and develop the teaching profession, the council is still finding its feet, and its powers are only gradually being rolled out.
This cautious and slow approach has caused some frustration among the 74,000 teachers who are due to pay the €90 annual registration fee this week.
By its own admission, the council faces a difficult job in winning over sceptical – and often downright hostile – teachers. Time and again, they question what the council is doing with their fee and criticise its low profile.
“When it comes up in the staff room, teachers are annoyed about having to pay €90,” says a teacher who has been working full-time since 2008.
“It’s important to have a professional body to maintain standards, but I’d question the level of the fee. We rarely see what they’re doing with the money.”
“I’ve heard nothing from them over the last four years,” says John Doyle, a Cork-based teacher with 25 years’ experience. “They have not impinged one iota on what happens in our school or staffroom, and we only pay them so we can be registered and paid.”
The frustration amongst teachers boils down to one question: what do we get for our €90? Teachers also pay a union sub, but there is the sense (at least some of the time) that they are getting something in return. The benefits of Teaching Council membership can seem less obvious. The council does not have daily contact with teachers. It has a heavy focus on policy and regulation issues – which may explain why it does not seem that relevant to the everyday life of the teacher in the staff room.
Áine Lawlor, director of the Teaching Council, admits that it struggles to get its message across to teachers.
“We have been trying by so many means to communicate with teachers – ads, newspapers, e-mails, leaflets, letters – but we have a body of work to do in reaching them,” she says.
THE FOLLOWING ARE ANSWERS TO SOME OF THE QUESTIONS POSED BY TEACHERS:
WHAT DOES THE TEACHING COUNCIL DO?
The Teaching Council maintains a register of teachers, which is publicly accessible on its website. It regulates entry to the teaching profession. From April 2013, all new teachers wishing to be registered must have a recognised teacher education qualification.
It oversees the vetting by the Garda of all newly registered teachers in Ireland. To date it has arranged the vetting of approximately 30,000 teachers.
It reviews and accredits the 44 programmes of teacher education in Ireland. Each programme is reviewed by a seven-member independent panel, which visits the college to observe lectures. It also meets with staff, students, recent graduates and their employers. Seven reviews have been carried out to date. A further review is ongoing.
It distributes bursaries to teachers wishing to conduct educational research
WHY DOES THE FEE HAVE TO BE PAID EVERY YEAR?
Many teachers resent paying the registration fee on an annual, rather than a one-off basis, particularly as they have seen their salaries eroded in recent years.
The council says that annual fees are the norm for all professional bodies, and that their fee is considerably less than others, such as the Medical Council. The fee can be claimed against tax, meaning those on the higher tax rate effectively pay €53 a year.
HOW DOES THE COUNCIL SPEND ITS CONSIDERABLE FEE INCOME?
In 2009, the council took in €6.7 million in revenue, almost all of it from teacher registration fees. Staff costs – wages, pensions and staff training – consume half of the organisation’s expenditure, while administration costs were €734,618.
Communication and education – contacting teachers, taking out advertisements in the media – cost €204,603. Accommodation costs for meetings and conferences amounted to €279,051. The council’s financial statements tell an interesting story. In 2009, it made a surplus of €3 million. It continues to generate decent profits. On the face of it, this money should be spent on hiring extra staff, but an embargo on public service recruitment prevents this. So the money remains untouched, despite growing criticism that the council is struggling to fulfil its statutory functions.
Seán Rowland, director of Hibernia College and a member of the council’s board, says that this is a totally unsatisfactory situation.
“They’ve been given a large brief of legislation which they are obliged to roll out over a number of years, but there is a block on them hiring people to do it.
This freeze should be lifted; the taxpayer isn’t being asked to foot the bill. If we are to have a fully-functioning Teaching Council, there have to be multiples of current staff levels. It deserves the opportunity to succeed and we need it to.”
IF THE COUNCIL IS MAKING A SUBSTANTIAL SURPLUS, WHY DOESN’T IT REDUCE THE TEACHER REGISTRATION FEES?
The council says that it does not seek to make a surplus, and that the extra monies are due to unexpected delays in some of its functions, including probation, continuous professional development, and fitness to teach.
These functions will begin in September 2012 and lead to an increase in the costs of running the council. It remains to be seen whether the council will reduce the fee at that point.
WHO RUNS THE COUNCIL?
Director Áine Lawlor, a graduate of Mary Immaculate College, Limerick is liked and respected by colleagues and education observers, who say that she and her team are working hard with limited resources.
Lawlor is seen as having a passionate commitment to education and a dedication to students. She was a former primary school teacher in Scoil Nano Nagle, Clondalkin, Dublin before being seconded to the Department of Education’s Primary Curriculum Support Programme in 1999. She was appointed as director of the Teaching Council in 2006.
HOW IS IT STRUCTURED AND WHAT ARE THEY PAID?
There are 28.5 staff in the council. Average pay is €41,704. Áine Lawlor is paid an annual salary of €105,429.
The council is self-regulating and consists of 35 members, with a strong majority of teachers: 11 primary teachers and 11 post-primary teachers (including six teacher trade union nominees); two nominees of the Colleges of Education; two nominated by specified third-level bodies; four nominated by school management, two nominated by parents’ associations, and five nominees of the Minister for Education, including one IBEC and one ICTU representative. There are six trade union nominees.
The Teaching Council recent reports and controversies
In November 2010, the Teaching Council’s independence was put to the test when it clashed with then minister for education Mary Coughlan. The minister proposed to amend Section 30 of the Teaching Council Act to allow unregistered teachers work in schools.
At a time when many qualified teachers were struggling to find jobs, the council fiercely opposed this.
A recent report on Mary Immaculate College – alma mater of the Teaching Council’s director Áine Lawlor – said too much time was spent on religious studies in the colleges of education, and not enough on subjects such as science, foreign languages, and civic responsibility.
In 2009, the Council commissioned a survey of 1,000 adults on attitudes to the teaching profession. Overall, the findings were positive.
The recently published draft Policy Paper on Teacher Education sets out the proposed framework within which teachers will be educated prior to registration, inducted into the profession, and engage in ongoing professional development throughout their careers.
The Teaching Council Registration Regulations were published in 2009.
The Teaching Council will be central to improvement of maths teaching in coming years, as universities introduce bonus points for higher level.
In 2007, the council published the first ever code of professional conduct for teachers in Ireland. It does not yet have the power to discipline teachers for breaches of this code. Observers say that how it uses these powers will be its first real test.
