The decision by ASTI members to back the €38 per hour supervision deal in a re-ballot of members will be met with relief by parents, students and school management. Notwithstanding the excellent work of the temporary supervisors, it is preferable that teachers themselves should perform this duty.
Teachers were quite entitled to demand payment for this work. The situation in which teachers were expected to discharge supervision and substitution duties without payment was inexcusable. The healthy vote in favour of the new arrangements means that a proper, professional structure can, at last, be put in place.
The implications of the vote are serious for the ASTI leadership - or rather for that group which controls the organisation. In voting to accept the deal, a majority of members were openly defying the advice of their own union. When a union leadership is cut adrift from its own members in this way it begs some serious questions. It is to be hoped that all in the union will now work constructively to build new, more democratic structures - instead of expending so much energy on internecine warfare.
The reform process will begin next month when a special ASTI convention considers a grassroots demand for school-based ballots to replace the existing branch- based ballots. This is an overdue reform which would allow more members to become actively involved in the union.
There are other encouraging signs that the ASTI is turning away from its recent militancy. The most recent meeting of its Central Executive Committee voted to put the new national pay deal and the benchmarking award of 13 per cent to a ballot of members - without any recommendation. It also signalled that the union is ready to open talks on the "modernisation" agenda (including parent-teacher meetings at night) if ASTI members back the deal.
All of this was in stark contrast to the union's smaller and more powerful standing committee which continues to rail against modernisation, benchmarking and the national pay deal. But yesterday's vote would suggest that the grassroots are working to another agenda.
The supervision vote also represents a significant political victory for the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey. His risky strategy of speaking over the heads of the ASTI leadership to ordinary teachers has proven to be successful. He deserves full credit for showing courage and political leadership. It may embolden him for the challenges ahead, especially on third-level funding.