The Ulster Teachers' Union has called for local Assembly Ministers to return to work despite their initial misgivings about the appointment of Mr Martin McGuinness as Education Minister in the Assembly.
Addressing the union's two-day annual conference in Newcastle, Co Down, its president, Mr George McVeigh, said that while Mr McGuinness's appointment was "fleeting and controversial", it was preferable to the "part-time" tenure of the post by a direct-rule minister from London. "During his short period in office, the Minister did make statements regarding the need for improved funding and the inequalities of the selection system, issues that are very important to all of us.
"Unfortunately, our education minister now, like too many of our teachers, is part-time, job-sharing and temporary. We have returned to the uncertainties of direct rule, a blow which may take years to recover from," Mr McVeigh said.
The conference yesterday passed an emergency motion opposing the introduction of performance-related pay for teachers. Mr McVeigh stressed that the issue, which has divided local teaching unions in the past, needed to be clarified "once and for all". He also drew attention to the shortage of male teachers, saying the domination of women in the classroom was worrying for both union and employers as many single-parent families lacked male role models for boys.
According to Mr McVeigh, principal of Ballymoney Model Primary School in Co Antrim, male teachers now represented 40 per cent of the total teaching population, a drop of 2.4 per cent since 1996.
"While there is an increasing gender imbalance in the teaching force, there are also statistics to indicate there is under-representation of women at principal and vice-principal level," he added.
Mr McVeigh expressed concern about the funding crisis facing many schools in the North, saying budget increases often did not even cover salary increases for teaching and non-teaching staff. Other items on the conference agenda included the effects of television violence on children and the controversial 11-plus transfer tests, which determine whether children attend grammar or secondary schools in Northern Ireland.