The following letter has been sent to the Irish Independent today:

The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has no political affiliations. It has had no influence on the policies of any party and it is not part of any organised campaign to encourage voting for or against any party, as implied by commentators over the weekend. The union has no right to direct members which way to vote, has never done so and is not doing so now.
TUI does have the right to point out consequences of policy directions of parties and to warn its members of the consequences to them of these policies being implemented. This is part of the democratic process and the reaction from Fine Gael to this exercise in democracy is revealing.
Yours sincerely,
Peter MacMenamin
General Secretary
TUI
73 Orwell Rd
Rathgar
Dublin 6
 

Correspondence from TUI General Secretary issued 17/2/11

TO: All TUI Representatives
All TUI Branch Secretaries
Executive Committee

TUI-11016bh-PM
17th February, 2011.

Re: Election Warning

Dear Colleague,

An examination of the manifestos of various political parties along with their websites has led to a realisation that there are serious threats contained on the website and within the manifesto of the Fine Gael Party. Given that this party is likely to be at least part of the forthcoming Government, the Executive Committee is of the view that these dangers should be brought to the attention of members. While TUI is a non-political organisation and it cannot take upon itself the role of recommending members to vote for a particular party, it nonetheless has the responsibility of pointing out the implications of some of the commitments (or warnings) being made by the parties. In this regard, a statement on the website, coupled with some statements within the manifesto with particular reference to education, need to be closely examined.

The Fine Gael website contains the following statement:

Unlike the other parties, Fine Gael will take on the big vested interests that have contributed to the current crisis – the bankers, the bondholders, the developers and the unions.

This statement can be found on the Fine Gael website at:
http://connect.finegael2011.com/forum/topics/fixing-the-deficit-jobs

From this Fine Gael believes that we, the unions, have contributed to the current crisis (along with the bankers, the bondholders and the developers). Fine Gael is going to “take us on”.

They are giving us fair warning now before the election and if we put them into government on 25th February we can-not undo that. We must be warned now.

We must recall what the current outgoing Government has done to the pay and conditions of teachers and other workers with no mandate. This party is seeking a mandate for the same and we need to be warned.

Statements on Education

In their manifesto, section 9, pages 34 to 38, the following statements can be found:

Efficient Work Practices In Schools: In order to avoid further increases in class sizes, we will work with the education partners to seek further efficiencies in work practices – in line with the Croke Park Agreement – and to devolve more power to school principals and teachers to make tight budgets go further.

In respect of third level, the following is to be found:

Third Level Efficiencies: We will not increase the student registration fee further. Instead, we will pursue greater pay and non-pay efficiencies in the third level system through greater flexibility in working arrangements, in line with the Croke Park Agreement.

The above two comments, taken with the warning of “taking us on” gives a very clear message as to the intention of this party.

The manifesto further states:

Fine Gael will improve the system for evaluating schools so that parents have access to more information when choosing a school for their family.

We will introduce a new system of self-evaluation, requiring all schools to evaluate their own performance year on year and publish information across a wide range of criteria including extra-curricular activities, special needs education, learning support, music or drama as well as exam performance in an annual school report.

They want schools to:

 evaluate their own performance
 publish information across a wide range of criteria including
o extra-curricular activities,
o special needs education,
o learning support,
o music or drama
o exam performance
All this to be done in an Annual School Report.

This means school league tables will be introduced and, once introduced, will be there forever. As educators we know that school league tables are counter-educational and reveal nothing about the quality of the school or the quality of the teaching. TUI, along with other teacher unions and other education bodies including the Department of Education and Skills, have all opposed the introduction of league tables. This party is threatening to bring them in.

Can we afford to vote this party into Government? Can we afford to allow this party an overall majority? These are questions that must be clearly examined by TUI members in deciding which way to cast their vote on Friday, 25th February.

I would ask that you would circulate this information to all members within your school/college/centre. Given that the mid-term break is upon us any further information will be put on the TUI website. Members are asked to monitor this for further analysis of party commitments.

Please note that this is not a party political message. It is a message based on the published policies of the party.

Yours sincerely,

_____________________________
Peter MacMenamin
General Secretary