Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe was once again met with a frosty reception by teachers as he addressed the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) annual conference today.
Elsewhere, primary school teachers at the INTO conference today voted to stage rolling industrial action in September in protest at education cuts. Delegates unanimously voted for the move, which they said would not directly affect their work in the classroom.
Yesterday delegates at the conferences of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) and Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) yesterday staged a walkout when the Minister spoke. A plea by the Minister for solidarity was received at both conferences in silence.
Today, around 50 of the 450 TUI delegates walked out of the hall when Mr O'Keeffe entered the stage to address members in Cork.
Other delegates jeered and shouted "shame, shame on him" as he began speaking and the Minister was heckled when he said the Government had tried to be fair in introducing measures to address the deterioration in finances.
Mr O'Keeffe, a former teacher and member of the union, said that nearly 7,000 additional education places will be created in the higher and further education sectors through the activation measures announced in the Budget last week.
He added that teachers and lecturers would be conscious of the need to adjust provision to meet changing local employment opportunities and different student needs in the current climate.
"Painful adjustments in living standards are necessary for our economic survival, recovery and return to prosperity. No Government would want to make these decisions if they could be avoided. No Minister wants to make cuts to public services or dramatically increase taxes in such a short period of time. But this is about the long term future of our country," said Mr O'Keeffe.
"With these necessary adjustments, I’m confident that we are on the right track. Measures taken now will secure the viability of providing public services in the future," he added.
Responding to the Minister's speech this afternoon, Don Ryan, president of the TUI, said Mr O'Keeffe's attempts to convince people that the Government was doing its best in trying circumstances were unlikely to succeed because the Government not only lacked credibility but had begun reducing education funding even when the economic situation was positive.
"It is difficult, Minister, for teachers and lecturers to believe you. Your Government started taking money out of an already impoverished system – a system that was already at the bottom of the international tables of funding of education. . . . We are trying to protect the education system, defend it, and build it up, but your Government is dismantling it systematically," said Mr Ryan.
In contrast to Mr O'Keeffe, the TUI president's speech was greeted by wild applause and standing ovations, particularly when he described the Minister's attempts to explain the Government's measure's as being of "the dog ate my homework" variety.
"Minister, in one way or another, you have taken from the chances of every pupil and student in our schools and colleges. To add insult to injury, you compounded your mistakes by getting involved with attempts to discredit teachers by understating the extent of job losses in second level schools and by releasing inaccurate and misleading information about teachers’ sick leave," he added.
Mr Ryan called on the Minister to restore the book grant for needy families, remove the pension levy and the cap on PLC courses and to lift the embargo on the filling of essential management posts in schools and colleges.
At the opening of the TUI conference in Cork yesterday, delegates voted unanimously for possible industrial action in protest at the cutbacks.
The three teachers unions are today considering a series of emergency motions demanding a campaign of industrial action as anger intensifies about the education cutbacks and the public service pension levy. The options under discussion by unions include industrial action, up to and including school closures as well as non co-operation with any modernisation measures.
Teachers at the INTO Congress in Letterkenny have called for an end to the use of pre-fabs for classrooms. Delegates at the conference adopted a motion deploring "the vast sums of money being wasted on the rental and purchase of prefabricated buildings.
The conference called for discussions to begin on more cost-effective ways of providing school buildings.
INTO general secretary John Carr said prefabs are not acceptable classroom accommodation and no child should be sentenced to eight years of primary education in a prefab. "Prefabs are economically nonsensical and educationally indefensible and their use should be phased out completely."
He said no child should be sentenced to eight years of primary education in a prefab.
The INTO also announced today that Sheila Nunan is to replace general secretary John Carr when he retires from the post next year.
Ms Nunan becomes the first woman to lead the INTO, the country's largest teaching union.
The three teachers' conferences being held this week are Mr O’Keeffe’s first since taking office.