The tide will only turn for teachers when parents see the harmful effects of cutbacks, writes BREDA O'BRIEN.
WHY DO people hate teachers? Listening to the radio during the week, there were virtually no comments supporting teachers unless they came from teachers themselves, or their close relations. Most of the comments made this teacher wince. What did we do to get ourselves so disliked?
Is it because almost everyone has a story about a teacher they disliked, or were afraid of? I have one myself. When I was in secondary school I had a maths teacher who inspired fear at a hundred metres. In an era when corporal punishment was long outlawed, she lined us up to hear us stutter our way through theorems. If we failed to meet her standards, she would deliver a thump to an upper arm, sufficient to make the hapless pupil stagger. Major offenders would be sent to stand outside the prefab window to learn from that vantage point.
One day, she sent out a friend of mine, but workmen had been digging a trench outside. My friend spent the rest of class jumping up and down in the trench to avoid being accused of not paying attention. The rest of us were too scared to even crack a smile at the vision of her head appearing and disappearing at 10 second intervals.
However, the numbers of kind, competent, and yes, even inspiring teachers more than made up for this one terror. Most people have also had a teacher of whom they were very fond. Somehow, the two categories don’t seem to balance out when it comes to phone-in programmes.
Another great bugbear is the idea that it is impossible to get an incompetent teacher fired. Of course, it is often forgotten that it has become progressively more difficult to fire anyone in a permanent job, whether it be in the public or private sector, and that situation has come about because the balance of power in former times was so tilted in favour of employers. Nonetheless, teachers who are fired for inability to teach or control a class are as rare as hens’ teeth.
Come September, a new scheme for teachers who are euphemistically described as “experiencing professional difficulties” will come into play. If implemented properly, it will mean that struggling teachers will receive help. If that help fails, disciplinary proceedings can be initiated by the board of management, up to and including dismissal. It can only help the profession, if for no other reason than that it will silence critics who claim there is no comeback against under-performing teachers.
Then, of course, there are the holidays. Frankly, I don’t even try to defend them any more. I used to say that they were there for the children as much as for the teachers, and that some of the most valuable learning happens outside the classroom. Now that the majority of families are two-income, parents are less inclined to feel that free time for children is an unmitigated blessing. I know myself that I could not teach for 10 or 11 months of the year without collapsing, but that claim is greeted by non-teachers with great scepticism.
Perhaps the dislike of teachers is part of the general dislike of the public service, fomented to such effect by organisations like Ibec. Our permanent and pensionable jobs are the source of immense envy, and sympathy regarding the imposition of the pension levy is non-existent as a result.
From a teacher’s point of view, we continued to struggle along in the boom years, often in sub-standard accommodation, with poor facilities for science, and even poorer information technology, and not enough help for children with special needs. Yet when there was a downturn in the economy, an already under-funded education system was top of the list for cuts. It seems grossly unfair, given that teachers, generally speaking, contributed to the boom by helping to provide a well-educated workforce, but are witnessing their pupils and themselves being made to pay for the sins of others.
More to the point, for the 3,000 members of the ASTI who are part-time or temporary, being permanent and pensionable is a receding dream. These teachers are already the most vulnerable, but come September, many of them will have no work at all. A survey of 20 schools conducted by the ASTI, shows that they will lose an average of 2.6 teachers. The future is even bleaker for new graduates. They chose teaching at a time when jobs in every other area were plentiful, and better paid. As a reward, few of them will secure even temporary or part-time work.
It will be very interesting to see how the Department of Education reacts to the proposed industrial action. Even though teachers will not be going out on strike, the department may decide to cut pay for non-co-operation with previous agreements. Will teachers, already facing significant cuts from the pension levy, health levy and other levies, buckle? Or will they become more militant?
Perhaps there is more solidarity among teachers and parents than callers to radio programmes might suggest. Over 100,000 people took to the streets in protest at education cutbacks. In September, people will begin to see what cutbacks really mean. When their children do not receive help for special needs, or have a reduced subject choice, or suffer a cancelled transition year programme, perhaps that solidarity will increase as anger rises at a short-sighted Government that neglects the vulnerable, and especially children. We can but hope.