Madam, – Your report on the Minister for Education’s proposal to allow unqualified people to teach while there are qualified teachers seeking employment (Home News, October 14th) is a direct attack on the teaching profession. What next, Fás-trained doctors?
It’s high time that parents and qualified teachers refused to allow children to be “taught” by people who are not teachers. A flat refusal to teach alongside unqualified people must be the order of the day in the children’s interests. Parents must withdraw their children from schools that don’t employ professionals. Let the authorities take parents to court and test the law. Children have a legal right to an education in a school that employs teachers not childminders. If this proposal by Mary Coughlan is not challenged successfully, other professions will also be threatened with amateur status. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – According to Sheila Nunan, the INTO general secretary, the employment of untrained substitute teachers is “a calculated insult to teachers” and parents should be “outraged” (Home News, October 14th).
For many years I have worked as a substitute teacher in several schools in my area. Although I do not have a BEd (primary teaching degree), I have a BA (Hons) degree in English Literature and an MA in Creative Writing from UCD. Having conducted our local church choir for many years, I can also teach music.
I love the mornings I get a call from a school. I work hard and do my best to see that the children’s learning experience with me is always a positive one. Far from being insulted by my presence, I think my colleagues, the children I have taught over the years, and their parents are always happy to see me. – Yours, etc,