Mr John White of ASTI has called for calm amid a row over comments by the Catholic Secondary School Parents' Association which described the striking teachers behaving like "terrorists".
"This is a time for cool calm heads, abusive remarks have no role to play in a solution to this difficult problem," Mr White told
ireland.com
today.
Mr White's comment came in response to an article by Ms Barbara Johnston, PRO for the Congress of Catholic Secondary Schools Parents' Association, in today's Irish Times.
"You have kidnapped our children's future and are now holding that future to ransom," Ms Jonnston wrote.
Mr White said ASTI has received and accepted an apology from the President of the National Parents Council post-primary (NPCPP) for Mrs Johnston’s remarks.
Ms Margaret Morgan of Congress of Catholic Secondary Schools Parents' Association, which is part of the NPCPP, said she was not aware any apology had been sent. The NPCPP could not be contacted for comment.
In a letter sent to the Government this morning ASTI called for direct negotiations following its rejection on Saturday of Labour Court proposals aimed at resolving the dispute over a 30 per cent pay claim.
A strike throughout the State is scheduled to begin next Wednesday with five more strikes planned over the next three weeks.
The ban on exam work already in place is to continue. This includes the withdrawal from participating in oral examinations due to begin on March 26th.
When asked about direct negotiations, spokesman for the Department of Education Mr Brian Duggan said no talks are planned.
He said: "The claim has been through the standard industrial relations process and additional process. The Government has adopted a position on this and has continued to indicate its intention to run State exams."
"The Labour Court has issued its recommendation, ASTI has rejected it, and that’s where it stands," Mr Duggan said.
But Mr White said the process had not resulted in a solution.
He said teachers had maintained the national pay deal and benchmarking would not resolve the dispute. He insisted negotiations should start as soon as possible if a solution is to be found.
The Department of Education has drawn up a contingency plan to ensure exams go ahead despite the secondary teacher’s action.
Though the plan has not been officially announced, The Irish Timestoday reported the department hopes to recruit more than 1,000 graduates to help correct the Leaving and Junior Cert exams.
Mr Duggan said today the first phase of the plan will begin this week with advertisements for exam supervisors. Later this month the department will begin to advertise for examiners. He declined to give any further details.
Speaking to ireland.comthis morning, Ms Johnston said the foot-and-mouth crisis has put paid to parents' plans to hold protest marches over the renewed secondary teachers' industrial action.
The Congress of Catholic Secondary Schools Parents' Association has called on parents to write to ASTI union representative in their children's schools to say they can not support ASTI as long as it continues its proposed strike action.
Ms Johnston also called for the Government and teachers to take part in direct talks.
The dates for strike action are:
- March 14th
- March 22th
- March 23th
- March 27th
- March 28th
- March 29th