Deputy Brian Cowen gave me notice of his intention to raise on the Adjournment the subject matter of strike action at Clara Vocational School in County Offaly.
Adjournment Debate. - County Offaly School Strike.
The strike is at Clara vocational school, the one school in the area under the control of the County Offaly VEC in which there is a teacher in dispute. A similar problem has arisen in the area of the North Tipperary VEC and for that reason I am prepared to share my time with Deputy Lowry who sought to raise that dispute on the Adjournment. Is that in order?
It is quite in order but I am concerned about any deviation from the subject matter of the question I granted permission to raise, the strike at Clara vocational school.
The pupils of Clara vocational school did not attend school today because of a one-day stoppage by the teachers. The dispute concerns a teachers who was appointed to a permanent whole-time position at the school in September 1987, subject to the sanction of the Department of Education. In the normal course of events that sanction would have been forthcoming by last Christmas but, presumably in anticipation of the new pupil-teacher ratio of 20:1, the appointment was not sanctioned. The appointment of other teachers to permanent whole-time posts by VECs was not approved.
In refusing to sanction the appointment the Department relied on a regulation which had not been the code of practice for a number of years. I am referring to a regulation under which VECs have to seek sanction from the Department before the person appointed commences work. In the summer the Department decided that teachers in this category could be accommodated within the revised teacher allocations for this school year within their VEC areas.
A County Dublin teacher in a similar position, Miss Irene Devitt, whose appointment as a permanent teacher had not been sanctioned by the Department, took a High Court action. She had been offered a temporary whole-time appointment but, following the court action, her permanent appointment was sanctioned by the Department. I accept that because there are many part-time and temporary whole-time teachers in County Dublin it was not that difficult for the local VEC to accommodate the teacher in dispute. The person at the centre of the dispute at Clara vocational school teaches Irish and history. After interviews and so on she was appointed by the county VEC to the permanent post, subject to the sanction of the Department. It is unfortunate that the number of pupils in the VEC area this year has reduced and because of that the VEC are finding it difficult to accommodate her within the quota system. However, it is ironic that the only school to show an increase in the number of students is the Clara vocational school and that makes the appointment of this teacher all the more necessary.
Apart from the technicality of the regulation invoked by the Department in relation to this appointment the more fundamental question of natural justice arises. The reasonable expectation of that teacher was that her appointment by the VEC to the permanent post would be sanctioned by the Department, probably within two or three months of the date she commenced work. It is unfair, and unacceptable, that this teacher should find herself in the same position as she was in September 1987. The Department should accept that in a limited number of cases countrywide — I understand that a similar problem has arisen in Roscrea vocational school — the principle of natural justice should apply and that the teachers, not more than ten in all, should be made permanent.
It is clear from the representations I have made to the relevant section in the Department that there is great difficulty in bringing this teacher within the quota specified in the regulations. It is unfortunate that it was only as a result of the closure of the school today, and the threat of strike action in the future, that the Department have decided to send a principal officer and an assistant principal officer on Friday to meet officials of the VEC in an effort to sort out the problem. That should have been done a long time ago. It is not right that at this stage in the school year the teachers should have to resort to this action.
I appreciate the difficulties the officials of the Department have been faced with in trying to solve this problem. As a member of Offaly VEC I am au fait with what has taken place since the start of the school year because the problem has been discussed at our monthly meetings. However, I understand that the revised teacher allocation has not been sent to Offaly VEC. The Department, when sorting out a similar problem elsewhere, should have dealt with all cases referred to them. If this dispute is not resolved in favour of the teacher she will be without a job. We can argue about regulations and the interpretation of them for a long time but at the end of the day we will have to show some humanity. Officials of the Department have been considering this issue for many weeks but a solution to the problem is not yet in sight.
I am aware that the Minister has asked to be kept informed about the issue and has instructed her officials not to take any formal decision without her being notified. I know also that the officials are anxious to adopt a flexible approach in trying to resolve this problem.
However, quite frankly, this ongoing problem is going on far too long. We need to resolve it. It is unfortunate that parent representatives had to call to my door last Monday night to tell me that this strike would go ahead. Personally, I was very disappointed that I had been unable to resolve the problem by the representations that had been made. It is unfortunate that the one day strike today has brought this matter to a head. Commonsense should prevail and I hope that the sympathetic hearing that I have got in the Department will lead to the matter being brought to a conclusion. Let me add that the Minister has been very good to the school and has ensured that the extension of the school has progressed to the bill of quantity stage and this is as a result of the very supportive attitude she has taken to the representations that have been made by the parents' representatives, the school principal and local councillors in the area. Could the Minister ensure that her officials apply themselves to resolving the matter without further delay in the interest of the students who attend that fine school which is increasing its pupil numbers all the time? This is the only post primary school in Clara and I would like to see the matter resolved as a matter of urgency.
The problem which we have dealt with today is common to North Tipperary also and we have dealt with it on a joint basis. The difficulty we have is that the Minister for Education has refused to sanction the permanent full time appointment of four teachers in Roscrea school. This is a similar situation to that in Clara.
The teachers involved are: Gabriel Quigley, an art teacher; Noel Spittal, a resource teacher for the mildly mentally handicapped; Ann MacDonald, a teacher of physics and computer studies; Kathleen Lane, a career guidance teacher. These teachers were recommended for permanent whole-time appointment in September 1987, within the teacher allocation. Each of these subject areas is now critical to provide a proper educational service in the scheme.
Roscrea, with an intake of students from the Laois-Offaly area, has 480 students. Miss Gabriel Quigley is the only art teacher in the school and her appointment is absolutely essential. If Miss Kathleen Lane and Mr. Noel Spittal are not appointed the school will be without career guidance and the special class will have to be discontinued. In the case of Miss Ann MacDonald, it is vital that she is appointed because we have lost two physics teachers in the scheme since September 1988 and we will not be able to provide physics in the Roscrea or Nenagh schools.
I would like to make the following points in reply to the Minister's response yesterday to my questions. The Minister is hedging on the issue of allocations to the Roscrea and Clara schools. The Department have known for the past two months the exact position in these vocational educational committees vis-ávis staff and finances. The reply that I received is purely a smokescreen and an attempt to conceal procrastination and evasive action. It is typical of the Department's behaviour in recent times and indicates a total disregard for the children, who are the victims of this apathy.
The impact on the complete scheme has been enormous and the entire scheme has been severely dislocated by these events. The teachers are frustrated because they cannot plan their year in the professional way required to guide students through examinations. For example, in one of the vocational schools students were without a commerce teacher for five weeks at the beginning of the term. In another, the principal and vice-principal are teaching almost full hours, which seriously affects school administration, discipline and staff relations. None of the principals can plan timetables because they do not know what teachers will be available to them. They cannot authorise the purchase of much needed equipment because of financial shortages. This can only be described as the deliberate victimisation of students in the vocational sector.
Many of the schools have a depressed intake. Social problems are in abundance. These schools should be getting the most immediate attention and consideration, and yet eight weeks after the school year has begun students in the VEC system in Clara and North Tipperary are experiencing an intense frustration which is affecting their educational performance.
What has happened to the concept of equal opportunity in education which Donough O'Malley so boldly proposed in 1966? The present Minister quite obviously is abusing the situation and is discriminating against an already under privileged sector of our community. The result has been immense student hardship.
The teacher in Clara and the four teachers in Roscrea have experienced 18 months of confusion, insecurity and hardship as a result of the Minister's refusal to sanction their posts. Consequently, their professional standards have suffered. What right have this Government to impose this horrendous nightmare on people who are trying to do a much needed job of work? The knock-on effect of this has been the revocation of the voluntary redundancies given to five teachers in North Tipperary, three of whom are school principals, who now find themselves back in school with all the pressures that involves. They wished to retire and now the confidence and motivation of students, teachers and parents has taken a huge plunge. Students in need of remedial assistance are getting less help than at any time in the past. Is the Minister intent on increasing the rate of illiteracy of school leavers and reenforcing an already poor self image among these students?
Let us have no more meetings but let us have action and results. I ask the Minister to give Clara and North Tipperary their financial and teaching allocations. I call on the Minister to sanction the four posts in Roscrea and the post in Clara immediately.
A Cheann Comhairle, may I give the remaining minute to Deputy Charles Flanagan?
I wish to add my voice to that of my colleague, Deputy Cowen, on the situation that pertains in Clara at present. I urge the Minister to look at this matter in a sympathetic light in the hope of resolving the problem.
Clara Vocational School is one of the foremost schools in Counties Laois and Offaly. In the light of the fact that County Offaly is unique in vocational education, I ask the Minister to take an urgent view of the situation in Clara. Records in the Department of Education will show that there are more students in the vocational sector in County Offaly than in most other counties in Leinster and perhaps throughout the length and breadth of the country. Therefore, it is quite important that each and every vocational school is looked at with the utmost seriousness.
This teacher in Clara was one of 103 teachers in a similar situation. My information is that some 98 of these 103 teachers have had their grievance solved. I urge the Minister therefore to look sympathetically at the remaining five cases, one of which is in Clara.
The teachers in this school have taken the action they have taken today in the form of strike as the very last resort. They felt, obviously, that they were not getting their grievance through to the Department and the decision to strike was not taken lightly, as I am sure my colleague Deputy Cowen will agree. In the light of the strike that has taken place, I urge the Minister to sanction the appointment of this teacher in Clara. Indeed, if the teacher is not to be sanctioned I ask that the reasons for such non-sanctioning be made clear at the earliest opportunity. I urge the Minister to look at the personal circumstances of a teacher who cannot plan her future and cannot decide where she will be after Christmas, let alone over the next few years. She cannot plan whether she will remain in Clara and remain part and parcel of the Offaly VEC, simply because of the temporary status that she has at present.
Given the circumstances of the case, there is no reason that this teacher cannot be granted permanent status as a general teacher in Clara in the employ of Offaly VEC. It is essential that this happens because if it does not we are undermining the entire teacher structure. All teachers in Clara are of the opinion that this is a matter that should be resolved on humanitarian terms and I would urge the Minister to give favourable consideration to what both Deputy Cowen and myself have said here this evening in regard to Clara and similarly, so far as North Tipperary is concerned, to what my colleague Deputy Lowry has said.
I am glad that the Deputies have raised these matters as it affords me an opportunity to clarify the position about the teaching staff allocations for VECs generally in 1988-89 and specifically the position in this regard and in regard to teacher appointments in the case of the County Offaly VEC and Tipperary North Riding VEC.
I would like at the outset to outline the developments over the past two years in the staffing arrangements for post-primary schools. In the context of their 1987 budget proposals the previous administration decided that posts of vice-principal and career guidance teachers would be brought within the quota in all post-primary schools as from the beginning of the 1987-88 school year.
On assuming office, I decided that the question of the implementation of that latter measure should be reviewed. The post of vice-principal had since 1983-84 been reckoned within quota in the smaller post-primary schools. The Minister felt that on grounds of economy of scale, the extension of the arrangement to the larger post-primary schools, that is, those with enrolments of at least 250 pupils would be justified. The post of guidance teacher in the larger schools was, however, a different matter. The need for the services of a specialist guidance teacher in the larger post-primary schools is self-evident. Because of this, the Minister decided that no change should be made in the status of the post of guidance teacher. This post would continue to be reckoned as ex-quota in post-primary schools with enrolments of at least 500 pupils.
When considering the 1988 provision for the pay of teachers in post-primary schools, it was necessary to look again at the staffing arrangements for those schools. In terms of standards and range of ability of pupils catered for, whatever may have been the case before Fianna Fáil introduced post-primary education for all, nowadays the average post-primary school — whether it be vocational, secondary, community or compehensive — is catering for a wide range of ability levels. Consequently I believe that the time has come to put second level schools on the same footing as regards pupil-teacher ratios and this is now being done with the introduction of a common pupil-teacher ratio of 20 to 1 as from the beginning of the 1988-89 school year.
No change is being made in regard to the ex-quota positions of principal, and those of guidance teachers in schools with at least 500 recognised pupils, and posts as resource teachers established for the purpose of catering for the needs of mildly mentally handicapped pupils.
A number of concessionary posts — 30.5 in all — were also allocated to VECs in respect of the needs of smaller vocational schools which were the only post-primary schools in their catchment areas. Those posts were allocated by my Department on the basis of appeals from VECs and with particular reference to school size. While full account was taken of their needs it was not found possible to make additional allocations to the two VECs in question under this heading.
Both VECs have a number of disputed teacher appointments, two in County Offaly VEC and four in Tipperary North Riding. I would like to explain that following a High Court judgment earlier this year in the case of a similar teacher appointed by the County Dublin VEC the Minister wrote to the two VECs concerned. The Minister advised them that, while she was satisfied as to the need for permanent appointments and on the distinct understanding that the appointments in question could be accommodated within the teaching staff allocations authorised for 1988-89, she would be prepared to sanction the appointments on a permanent basis. Certain difficulties have arisen in accommodating these teachers within the teacher allocations.
The Department are currently working to finalise the 1988-89 teacher allocation for Tipperary North Riding VEC and County Offaly VEC in the light of the most up to date information supplied by the committees about teacher numbers and pupil enrolments. The Minister discussed the current difficulties with the Teachers' Union of Ireland with whom she had a very good meeting last Tuesday. She has also arranged for officials of her Department to meet with the chief executive officers of both VECs to discuss those matters further, and I am happy that everything that can be done is being done to ensure a satisfactory outcome in the current situation and to avoid the escalation of industrial action.
The Dáil adjourned at 8.55 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 10 November 1988.