Teachers' summer shutdown should not be a closed book

OPINION:The State's educators are off on three months' leave. But how can this be justified?

STARTING LAST Friday, our post-primary school teachers began their annual 12-week summer holidays.

For many, the next time they will have any engagement with their respective schools is between August 26th and August 29th, when students begin the next school term.

There is no onus on teachers to check in with their workplace at any time over the next three months and in general, any retraining or upskilling that is needed will not take place between now and the end of August but will instead be left until the school term resumes.

Those second-level teachers who are required to stay on this week for State examinations will be paid extra for their service. Last year, the State Examination Commission employed 4,741 superintendents to supervise exams, and 6,606 examiners to correct papers, with the vast majority of these appointments taken up by teachers.

The daily rate for a second-level teacher taking up a superintendent post this year is €112.04, with a first day rate of €280.08, which is paid in addition to their weekly salary.

Few other sectors of our public service enjoy such an extended break from their day-to-day grind. Politicians have been vilified for taking long holidays, with the public demanding more bang for their buck from our public representatives.

As a result, the Dáil will this summer sit until the third week in July and return mid-September, while Friday sittings have also been introduced during the current Dáil term.

But our post-primary teachers continue to enjoy what might be considered generous holidays. In return for a year-round salary, post-primary teachers are required to provide 167 days tuition each school year. This works out at an average of 22 hours class-contact per week over 33 weeks, giving, according to the Department of Education and the ASTI teacher union, an average total of 735 hours a year teaching. (From 2011/2012, second-level teachers will also deliver an extra 33 hours non-teaching time a year as part of the Croke Park agreement.)

As an average of actual teaching hours, the 735 hours ranks above the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average, which was 682 hours as presented in a 2010 Education at a Glance report.

In France, second-level teachers provide 630 hours tuition per year, while the comparable figure in the UK is 722.

So on the face of it, it would appear that Irish second-level teachers are able to justify their long holidays given their higher productivity on a comparable level at other times of the year.

But closer analysis of the 2010 data tells a more nuanced story.

When it comes to the number of weeks of instruction provided in second-level schools, Ireland is second lowest in the OECD with just 33 weeks.

Actual days of instruction provided in second level schools is also low, coming in at 167, whereas the OECD average is 184. And, looking at the working time required of teachers at school, Ireland ranks lowest of the OECD countries represented, with educators expected to be present for 735 hours, and the average between 1,166 and 1,192 hours.

What the figures tell us is that outside actual teaching time, the Irish second-level system fares badly in comparable terms in the amount of time expected of its teachers in schools.

Admittedly, many teachers may put in extra time outside their 22 hours teaching a week. Teacher unions have put the real figure in the region of 40 hours a week.

One ex-principal I spoke to, though, queried this figure and said teachers putting in those hours weekly were “the exception rather than the norm.”

He said that it was generally only teachers of subjects which required longer correcting time, such as English, history or Irish, who would clock up significant additional hours.

The argument advanced by some teachers is that the stress of the job means that educators need the summer months to recover. But following that logic, AE nurses should only work six months of the year.

The debate on shortening the holidays is sometimes related to the impact it would have on shorter school holidays for students. But this should not necessarily be the case. Many industries have quiet times that provide for retraining and planning. Why should teaching be any different?

What would be so wrong with our second-level teachers returning to school two weeks earlier, say from mid-August onwards?

This would eliminate the need for days to be taken during the school year and allow for more coherent planning at a time when pressure is off staff.

Just because school is out for summer, doesn’t mean public servants have to be too.

Brian O’Connell is a freelance journalist and author. Twitter @oconnellbrian