DISCIPLINE IN SCHOOLS:MORE THAN 300 secondary schools may be forced to close as a result of strike action proposed by the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI). Delegates voted in favour of a one-day strike yesterday evening, unless the problem of discipline in classrooms is addressed immediately.
Coupled with a national demonstration, the proposed industrial action will be what the TUI terms the "first step" in a campaign of action on indiscipline in schools. TUI members will now be balloted on the matter of industrial action.
The vote came about from an amendment to a motion that asked the Minister to implement key recommendations of the Task Force on Student Behaviour. The amendment stated that if the Minister does not agree immediately to provide staffed behaviour support rooms to all 124 schools that have requested them, strike action will take place.
While more than 120 schools applied for behaviour support services when they became available last year, just 50 post-primary schools around the country currently have access to those services. This is a "drop in the ocean", TUI assistant general secretary Declan Glynn said. "Those 50 represent just 7 per cent of schools:"
The amendment calling for strike action was proposed by north Dublin teacher Helen Brennan, who works in one of the schools that applied unsuccessfully for the behaviour support.
"The amendment to this motion asking for strike action strengthens our position and will force the Minister to take us and the problems of indiscipline in our schools far more seriously from now on," Ms Brennan said.
Delegates last year voted overwhelmingly in favour of a motion that demanded resources for measures including specialised training for teachers in areas related to student behaviour, additional staffing for disadvantaged schools and the provision of behaviour support on a nationwide basis. Since then, very little has been done.
"Are we serious about this or are we not?" demanded former TUI president Paddy Healy. "We have voted on this again and again and again . . . Our schools and teachers are loaded with insufferable difficulties." The vote reeked of teachers' frustration, said Mr Glynn, pointing out that the current report of the Task Force on Student Behaviour was in fact the third of three task force reports on the issue.
"The first one was published in 1982 and it recommended alternative provision for that small cohort of unmanageable pupils," he said.
Behaviour support measures have been proven to work in other countries. In Scotland almost every school has behavioural support, at both primary and secondary level. Ireland's spending on student behaviour support is a fraction of that of Scotland's. The TUI estimates that its demands would cost about €20 million.
At the ASTI conference earlier, Minister for Education Mary Hanafin said she intended extending behaviour support to more schools in the next school year.