ASTI GENERAL secretary John White said members “must have full and comprehensive information on their options” when voting whether to accept or reject the public service agreement.
Addressing delegates at the ASTI annual convention in Galway yesterday, Mr White acknowledged that members of the union’s standing committee found many of the aspects of the agreement unacceptable.
Indeed, the committee had been loud in its expression of “total and vehement” opposition to the agreement but Mr White urged delegates to consider the ramifications of all options.
“Acceptance would entail detailed negotiations of all of the elements,” he said. “Rejection could involve possible imposition of elements of the deal.”
Mr White warned that the current climate was one of “unrestrained attempts by the right wing to diminish the power of the unions to represent their members.
“Trade unions must not allow themselves to be provoked into misguided and doomed actions,” he said.
On the moratorium on posts of responsibility, he said the effect on schools was “devastating”. “If, as I expect, another 1,000 teachers retire next August, I believe a number of schools will have difficulty in operating, which means they can’t open.”
Mr White said: “Discipline will be eroded and the administration of schools will be impossible.”
Delegates applauded when he called on the Minister for Education to lift the moratorium “before the education of this generation of pupils is, irretrievably damaged”.
Yesterday’s was Mr White’s last address to congress as general secretary. He ended on another cautious note saying: “We are at our best as educators and trade unionists when we act in a coherent, rational and unified manner. Let us not be provoked by those from the right and the extreme left who wish to weaken trade unionism into taking actions which can only lead us into disunity and fear.”
Mr White also spoke about curricular reform, saying “we are open to change. But it must be change that is realistic.”
While he said the ASTI would consider the proposals for Junior Cert reform, he insisted 15 year-olds needed the structure of a national exam.
During a debate later on reform of the Junior Cert, there was both support and opposition expressed to the plans.
A motion broadly “welcoming” the reform of the exam was passed by a small majority but a counter-motion opposing any attempt to change the existing Junior Cert was agreed unanimously.
Speakers against the proposed reform of the exam argued that the work to rule meant that teachers could and should not co-operate with any syllabus reform.
Pat Collins (Dungarvan) maintained that any attempt to get rid of the Junior Cert exam would lead to standards falling, while Martin O’Neill (Kilkenny) argued that teachers assessing their own students would simply be unworkable. “If we do, we’re finished,” he said.
Joe Moran, president of the ASTI, argued in favour of the proposed reforms adding: “We can oppose this or we can mould it.”
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, he said, was a statutory body and would proceed with reform – with or without the co-operation of the ASTI.
He pleaded with delegates to, “think strategically”. “If we mix this up with industrial action we’re making a mistake,” he said.
There was no controversy over a motion to negotiate a restoration of the 18:1 pupil teacher ratio.