THE school year has been shortened by more than one quarter of its normal length because of the absence of teachers from the classroom, a parents' conference has been told.
Where teachers are seconded at short notice to develop new courses, school principals are forced to provide students with little more than "baby sitting facilities " the Parents' Association of Community and Comprehensive Schools (PACCS) heard.
Mr John Murphy, president of PACCS, spoke of the "steady erosion" of class tuition and contact hours. He blamed this on seconding teachers to train for, or develop, new and revised courses the carrying out of oral, aural and practical exams during term time conferences organised by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment union meetings and illness.
"For parents, this is a disturbing development bearing in mind that the second level teaching year is a mere 167 days," he told the conference in Carraroe, Co Galway, at the weekend.
Mr Murphy said the problem had been largely created by the Department of Education. This was "profoundly disturbing" as the Department was well aware of the importance of time in school.
Signalling a major shift in PACCS policy on the Minister for Education's plans for regional education boards, Mr Murphy said it was "plainly absurd" for the Minister to justify setting up boards because of the unique centralisation of education in Ireland.
Existing PACCS policy is in favour of local boards, provided they do not create extra bureaucracy. However, Mr Murphy said it was difficult to justify the cost of "a massive bureaucratic structure for such a small school going population".
"Using education boards to counteract the excessive centralisation in the Department is on a par with using a sledge hammer to crack a nut" he said.
Parents were concerned that Ms Breathnach's plans to introduce sex education in all schools were driven by a ministerial deadline rather than by parent approval, he said. Relationships and sexuality education "the most distressful programme ever seen" had been "kicking around" for at least two years.
"On the one hand, the Minister seems hell bent on introducing it into our schools with the utmost dispatch, yet the implementation date has already been postponed once. There are no circumstances within which this programme can be acceptable to parents without a full and proper discussion and consultation process."
