Teachers have no right to deny children "even one minute of precious teaching time" by going on strike, the annual conference of the National Parents' Council (primary) has been told.
In a strongly-worded attack, Mr Desmond Kelly, president of the council, claimed children, the consumers of education, were being "increasingly short-changed" by teachers.
He said two changes in particular were needed to address this. Parent-teacher meetings should be scheduled at times more suitable to parents and the new benchmarking body should look at the issue of "under-performing teachers".
He was speaking at the conference in Ennis, Co Clare, over the weekend. His comments are a further illustration of the currently fraught relationship between parent groups (primary and second-level) and teachers.
In relation to ASTI strike, he said teachers were prepared to "selfishly try to use our children in pursuit of their own goals".
"Teachers have no right, absolutely no right, to take away from our children even one minute of precious teaching time, never mind days or weeks of time as they have done and now threaten to do again in September."
Mr Kelly claimed children were not only losing classroom hours because of strikes but also because the school year was being eroded. "Have you noticed how many extra days the schools are closed lately? Have you noticed the days lost for teachers' meetings?
"Have you noticed that parents, sometimes more than 60 adults per class, have to take time off from work to attend meetings with one teacher? And if for some reason they cannot attend the parent/teacher meeting, they stand accused of not caring about their child's education."
Mr Kelly said that the Government's new pay review body should look at several issues relating to teaching and not just pay. "We want to state that we, as parents, insist on the number of school days for primary children being brought back to 183 per year and we also insist that parent/teacher meetings be scheduled for times that are more suitable for parents.
"There must also be included in this benchmarking process a solution to the problem of under-performing teachers. It is a problem that has been ignored to date to the detriment of the education of many students and it must be finally faced and tackled," he said.
Mr Kelly said if teachers wanted salaries comparable to those in private industry they must have "the same responsibilities to their employers and to consumers as workers do in the private sector".
He said they would also have to face "the same sanctions and penalties" that exist in the private sector for non-performance of duties.
"Parents insist that this opportunity to correct many wrongs should not be lost and that benchmarking should not be a single-agenda negotiation about pay."