Like an eagle, he's got his eye on Winetavern Street as it curves down towards the Liffey and Merchants' Quay. Michael Corley, ASTI president, Labour councillor and part-time thespian, stands at his window, contemplating the lot of teachers. The view from his eyrielike fourth-story office is wide and seems to make him omniscient.

"We want more teachers in the school in order to reduce class sizes," says Corley who is living in Dublin, away from his home in Ennis, Co Clare, for the duration of his one-year term of office. "We'll be watching next year's budget very carefully and, if there's not a significant improvement, we will intensify our campaign next year."

Before the summer the ASTI started its campaign to influence the Minister's budgeting. "The main thing we want is a reduction in the Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR). I went to teach at St Flannan's College in Ennis in 1970. The PTR was 15:1. That was before we joined the EU, before the Celtic tiger. Today the PTR is 19:1."

Corley points out that in practice, because of the range of subjects on offer, this ratio results in class sizes of thirty pupils. "We feel that, if there were extra teachers, the classes would be smaller. We think that that's a critical thing.

"We'd expect the Minister to say that, over the next number of years, he will reduce the PTR from 19:1 to 15:1. We'd expect him to initiate steps in the next budget."

Sitting at his desk, Corley looks down briefly at his list and moves on to the second item on his agenda. "As well as looking for an increase there, we are also demanding more remedial, career guidance and home school liaison teachers.

"I made the case very strongly at meetings of the planning group on the National Education Psychological Service that we needed such a team of specialist teachers in schools. It will have cost implications."

Corley was a member of the planning group which produced the report, A National Educational Psychological Service , in September. "The work on this committee fitted in very well with our campaign for extra staff," he says.

"They do need specialist teachers. The main problem is class size - the larger the number in a class the more difficult it is to interact, the easier it is for students to fall behind and drop out and lose interest. It's extremely difficult to interact with large groups. If you have 30 pupils in a 40-minute class, the likliehood of you interacting often is limited.

"As a teacher you're trying to achieve the best for your students. That can be made difficult by having too many students. Also, there may be students with particular problems."

AT the start of this school year, the spotlight was focused on the increased duties of assistant principals and teachers with special duties. Corley says that one of the issues he is most worried about is "the whole process of in-school management which has arisen out of the PCW wage negotiations. There's a new management structure in schools. Teachers take up various posts at management level, but there's no provision for them to undertake those posts. This puts further pressure on our members to ensure that allowance will be given to them to undertake the posts so that teachers can do their work."

Pressure on teachers has increased, he explains. "You have to have time to talk with students, to meet with them. If you have 22 class contact hours, it's just not possible. Teachers are just getting frustrated and, at the same time, teachers will never say no."

Corley also highlights the issue of part-time and temporary teachers. "Over the years there has been a growth in their numbers. We'd like to see greater rights for them. There have been many developments in Europe giving rights to teachers.01

"We would be concerned with the growing number of our members who would be in that category. It's beginning to be a cause of concern. I want to pin it down. If the Minister makes the change that we are demanding, they would have full-time status. Many of these members dread the summer - that's when they're left wondering if they will be called the following September."

Europe is leading the way on this issue, says Corley. "We'd be pushing that the Minister implement the European Court decisions on promotion rights for part-time teachers and crediting those on career breaks for a full year."

Finally, Corley recalls this year's ASTI congress where bullying took centre stage at one of the most emotional and heated debates. Teachers spoke about being bullied by management as well as by students. "The debate did shock me by the strength of feeling. It came from the ground up," he says.

"Teachers are being bullied by students or by management. We've set up a sub-committee to examine the whole area of bullying and we're preparing a questionnaire for a cross-section of members. It's a very emotional issue. We want to define bullying exactly. It can be through the use of time-tabling, class allocation. We want to define bullying exactly. With bullying, certain things are unsaid and it takes courage to speak out."