In a wide ranging address to 400 delegates today, Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) General Secretary John MacGabhann tackled a number of issues relating to education and industrial relations including the Haddington Road Agreement and the effects of cutbacks. He also suggested that it is time to for TUI and ASTI to seriously consider merging.
TUI's Annual Congress is taking place at the Newpark Hotel in Kilkenny.
Extracts set out below.
Haddington Road Agreement – the lesser of two evils
The Haddington Road Agreement is highly unpalatable and was accepted by our members only with justifiable resentment at the constrained nature of the choice they faced. It was a case of the lesser of two evils.
With deep misgiving and understandable suspicion, our members decided to trust that government will honour its pledge this time round and will restore the pay cuts according to the schedule set out in the agreement. Woe betide government if it again reneges. Trust will then be beyond recall.
Casualties of FEMPI
It is becoming a default for Government - to bypass tried and trusted, industrial relations mechanisms and to undermine real collective bargaining. This may well garner bouquets from free-marketeers and wannabe neo-liberals, but it significantly damages real democracy as expressed by collective bargaining.
A further casualty is social justice, in that Government chose, on a discriminatory basis, to single out public servants for steep cuts while those primarily responsible for the crisis are largely unaffected.
In responding to the economic crisis, Government has refused to use fair, progressive taxation - the clearest possible articulation of social solidarity. It may be simple but it is not simple-minded to say that those who earn most should pay most.
Public trust in the education system
There are those who crave another casualty. The unwarranted demonization of public servants, including teachers and lecturers, is not unrelated to the unseemly public scratching of the persistent privatisation itch. Notwithstanding clear evidence of public trust in the Irish education system, there are those who would dismantle and privatise swathes of it. The extremely high levels of public trust were referred to in recent months by the Chief Inspector and the OECD, no less. This trust remains in spite of palpable damage inflicted by a slew of cutbacks. This trust is a resource, a valuable national resource, which should not be lightly cast aside. It is incumbent on us, as public servants, to deserve and to retain that trust.
System capacity - increased bureaucratisation
It is incumbent upon the Minister and Government to support the workings of what the Minister himself has described as the daily "miracle" of our high-quality public education system. This means, among other things, that schools and colleges must be relieved of the intolerable, intrusive and frequently unnecessary administrative burden that has accumulated.
Unrealistic expectations and challenging behaviours
They must also be relieved of the frankly nonsensical expectation that schools and higher education institutes can put right all the wrongs of society. It is also dishonest to maintain a pretence that some of the very serious problems evident in society at large are somehow neutralised in the school or college context. A young man or woman who is volatile or violent in the home or on the street typically brings that volatility and those violent tendencies into a school setting and can, in some circumstances, represent a real threat to fellow students and to staff. Because process has become so bureaucratised, it is increasingly evident to our members that school management is, too often, taking the line of least resistance when difficulty arises in terms of student behaviour and, as a consequence, is not addressing the problem effectively. We want fair process but we want fair process that is effective.
TUI and ASTI
It seems to me increasingly illogical, often absurd and certainly wasteful to have two unions at second level. The TUI and the ASTI have different origins and proud traditions. At one time a merger of the two would have been impractical and unnecessary. That time, I believe, is past. The evolution and democratisation of Irish society, the massification of public education, the panoply of underpinning legislation enacted in recent decades that applies equally to all, the confluence and merging of what were once discrete curricular strands, the presence of both unions in comprehensive schools, community schools, gaelcholáistí, dedicated community colleges and schools under the patronage of Education Together - all of these argue against what is, at this point, an artificial divide. What's more, we face common challenges, common threats and we can seize common opportunities. We will, more effectively, see off those threats, meet those challenges and seize those opportunities if we act as one.
I am also certain that our members at third level, our members in non- mainstream and atypical settings, our members in adult and further education, would be better served were there a merger of the unions.
Cuts - the effects
We are not helped in our campaign to maintain quality by cuts in government investment in Education. Although Budget 2014 was, relatively speaking, less damaging to education than the preceding four Budgets, nonetheless, in the region of € 45 million was taken out of the education system. However, the Budget is not the only mechanism utilised to reduce public investment in education.
The pernicious influence of the Employment Control Framework is operating, year on year, in third level colleges. In addition, Budgetary curtailments are effected by decisions of the HEA, including, now, a withholding tax, essentially, by dint of which a significant proportion of a much reduced funding allocation depends upon meeting targets, some of them inimical to the core-purpose of the institutes.
The provision in Budget 2013 for a cut in the pupil teacher ratio at Further Education/PLC, took effect from September last and has resulted in course curtailment and the loss of hours and jobs by teachers on fixed-term contracts.
Similarly, the working through of the cut in ex-quota guidance counselling provision is now having a significant negative impact on the capacity of schools to deal, in particular, with critical incidence.
Cuts also create the climate in which the demand for privatisation flourishes and those who impose the cuts know that.
Third level
We, in TUI, are committed to the continued provision of high quality public sector higher education on a regional, geographically equitable basis.
To the presidents of the Institutes of Technology, to the HEA, to the Minister we say that we will talk to you, we will explore with you ways and means of improving the range and the quality of the public education service in the Institute of Technology sector. We have not said no to Technological Universities, but we are not convinced by the model as described to date. If you want us as partners - and if you wish to make progress in this project, you need us as partners – you will have to talk to us, provide the resources that will enable us to be properly engaged and show appropriate respect for the academic staff that are at the very heart of any higher education institution.
The economy and pay
As well as defending our public education system we must also be assertive about the value of the public servants, including teachers and lecturers, whose excellence and ethic animate it.
At present, there is mixed opinion as to whether our economy is in the early stages of a sustainable recovery.
At an appropriate time and not too far from now, we in TUI and our colleagues in other unions will have to reinstate the practice of making pay claims. When we do so we must be faithful to our pledge to our new entrants to prioritise the reintegration of the teaching and lecturing scales so that all are on the pre-2011 scale.