The teachers have begun their protest. Over 600 schools were closed yesterday as the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI) began its campaign of industrial action. There will be more disruption for parents and for students tomorrow, when the teachers - in their own variation on the Garda's infamous "blue flu" - withdraw from voluntary supervision. In such circumstances, school managers have advised parents not to send their children to school as their health and safety cannot be guaranteed. At this juncture, teachers plan to withdraw supervision on five other days, while a further one-day strike is scheduled for early next month.
It is an appalling and worrying scenario for parents and more especially for the 120,000 students facing examinations next June. It may be that the deadlock can still be broken. In a significant move yesterday, the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, signalled that the benchmarking review body, established under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF), could be fast-tracked. The review body, which compares public service pay with that in the private sector, could deliver substantial increases for teachers if they adopt some of the working practices evident in the rest of the economy. Dr Woods has also invited the ASTI to attend the first meeting between the review body and the public service unions next Monday.
The ASTI has still to respond to these overtures. The union continues to call for meaningful discussions but it must know that the Government will not countenance any talks outside the PPF framework. Two of the three teaching unions - the Irish National Teachers Organisation and the Teachers' Union of Ireland - are prepared to use the PPF to press their claims for a substantial pay increase. Against this background, the Government can hardly make some kind of special deal with the ASTI.
The ASTI says, with some justification, that the terms of the benchmarking body are vague and imprecise. But there is nothing to be lost by attending Monday's meeting. One of ASTI's chief concerns is the manner in which pay levels for secondary teachers have fallen behind other professions. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development estimates that the average experienced teacher earns about £9,000 less per year than other graduates. The benchmarking review body gives teachers the opportunity to compare their pay and conditions with that of other graduates and to find a way of upgrading the whole profession. It is an opportunity that should not lightly be spurned by the union.
The withdrawal of supervision tomorrow will represent the next phase of the dispute. ASTI members will report for work as normal. It may be that they will also be paid, if they succeed in their legal challenge to the Government's proposed non-payment for these days. The union is exploiting the supervision in a crude and damaging way. But the Department of Education, in this instance, has only itself to blame. School management bodies and others have pleaded with the Department to establish a proper supervisory structure, instead of depending on the voluntary goodwill of teachers. The question posed by the National Association of School Principals and Deputy School Principals is a good one: how can the whole education system be brought to its knees by the withdrawal of voluntary labour?