State will not pay 40 teachers who failed to register

Up to 40 teachers will be off the State payroll from this morning having failed to register as a teacher before the closing deadline.

The country's 87,000 primary and secondary teachers had until today to register with the Teaching Council, the standards body for the profession.

Any attempt to explain away a failure to register in time will be immediately rebuffed.

There is no provision for back pay should a teacher register in the coming days or weeks, the Department of Education and Skills says. However, if a teacher registers in coming days they will be paid from then on.

The requirement to sign up as a qualified teacher is required under the provisions of section 30 of the Teaching Council Act 2001.

The introduction of section 30 also paves the way for the remaining functions of the Teaching Council to come into play, for example the power to investigate cases of professional misconduct or medical fitness.

Documentation
It remained unclear who are included among the 40 who have not registered. Some may never have sought to register, and at least some of them are thought to be teachers who are organising documentation in support of pending registration, the department says.

Any unregistered teachers who turn up for work this morning will not end up in a class. The department says it will sanction spending on a substitute teacher to take over the class.

The teaching unions and the department were in accord on the issue, with a vigorous campaign to get teachers to sign up. Clearly they were successful given all but 0.046 per cent of teachers managed to beat the deadline.

Magazine
"We have been promoting registration for our members very heavily in our magazine and on the website," said a spokeswoman for the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland.

She said the due date was even moved from the end of last November until this morning’s watershed.

“Everything has been done to try to facilitate teachers’ registration,” a departmental spokeswoman said.

Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn described this morning’s close of registration as a milestone, noting that teachers’ unions had campaigned for the introduction of section 30 of the Act.

“From now on only registered teachers in recognised schools will be paid by the State. I believe this is in the best interests of our children and our education system as a whole.”