A one-day strike by 266 principals and national school teachers in Cork and Clare yesterday may be the start of an INTO national campaign, its general secretary, Senator Joe O'Toole, has warned.
The action, which was condemned as "totally unjustified" by the Minister for Education, Mr Martin, led to the closure of 32 schools in the two Cork areas involved, Bandon and Bantry, but none in Co Clare. A central grievance is the workload of primary school principals who also have teaching duties.
Having picketed the Department of Education offices in Cork earlier yesterday, the teachers held a rally in the city's Neptune Stadium. Several speakers said unless the grievances felt by the INTO principals and teachers were addressed further action would be taken.
Senator O'Toole told the gathering: "This protest is the first step in a national programme of action which will be expanded, increased and extended over the coming months. The action will include strikes, non-co-operation, demonstrations and lobbying.
"The hour-to-hour interruption of the classes of teaching principals is highly disruptive. It is impossible for the principal, unfair on the pupils and frustrating for the school staff and management.
"The exponentially increasing workload on principals, particularly teaching principals and their staffs, is making a bad situation worse. Today's strikes in Clare and Cork are merely the tip of an iceberg of latent dissatisfaction."
He said the strike was not about more money for teachers but rather a cry for help and resources from a committed group of teachers who had been reasonable, flexible and resourceful against all odds.
"It comes at the end of more than two years of fruitless negotiation with the Minister and his Department. . . Rarely have primary teachers been so angry or so frustrated. It is quite clear that the Minister has no understanding of the situation in our primary school classrooms."
Rejecting the teachers' claims, Mr Martin said the one-day strike was unjustified. Primary school funding had been increased by 20 per cent over the past three years. He said other options, rather than strike action, which was disruptive, were open to the principals and the national school teachers who supported them.
Mr Des Rainey, president of the INTO, said that since 1986 various annual congresses had passed motions relating to the difficulties experienced by principals who had an ever-increasing workload. The INTO had waited patiently for the report of the Principals' Review Group , which had been ready since May.
"The clear message from this meeting today to the Minister is we can wait no longer. We are demanding the immediate publication and implementation of the recommendations in the report without any further delay," Mr Rainey said.
"In particular, we are demanding, firstly, that principals be released from teaching for a specified amount of time to allow them to carry out their duties; secondly, that all schools have access to adequate care-taking and secretarial support; and, thirdly, that the appointment figure for administrative principals be reduced from the current figure of eight to six mainstream classes."