WHILE conference season seems to arrive quicker each year, there will be absolutely no shortage of significant education and industrial relations issues to debate when 500 delegates and guests meet in Killarney, Co Kerry, for the Annual Congress of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) next week.
The event starts on Tuesday, April 2, and runs to Thursday, April 4.
In 2020 and 2021, our Annual Congress was held remotely due to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, and there has been a new appreciation of the value of our traditional face-to-face engagement since its welcome return.
The TUI represents more than 20,500 teachers and lecturers across second level, third level and further and adult education. This breadth of expertise provides us with a unique understanding of the resources required by the public education system as a whole, and TUI representatives will debate motions on a variety of critically important issues.
Let us start at third level, where TUI members were recently balloted for industrial action, up to and including strike action, over the non-adherence by management to an agreement in relation to the technological university sector.
The ballot followed the advertising of some positions in Munster Technological University (MTU) at a lower pay rate than similar positions in Dublin. We have made clear that there must be parity of esteem and consistency across the technological university sector if it is to work properly.
Teacher recruitment and retention issues will once again be to the fore.
On numerous occasions, and in all fora, we have made clear what is required to tackle this crisis. The failure by Government to introduce these measures is as baffling as it is frustrating.
Contracts of full hours must be provided from initial appointment to boost recruitment and teachers must have access to enhanced career structures to boost retention.
The duration of the two-year Professional Master of Education (PME) must be halved, as this has simply become too expensive for many seeking to enter the profession.
Also, teachers who wish to return from abroad must be provided with full incremental credit for their overseas service.
It is students who are losing out the most as a result of this crisis, with less access to the full range of subjects and situations where they can be taught a subject by a succession of teachers.
The failure of successive governments to invest anywhere near enough in education will be made clear across a range of debates and keynote speeches.
The most recent OECD ‘Education At A Glance’ report shows that, of the countries listed, Ireland is bottom of the pile in terms of the proportion of national wealth (GDP) spent on education.
This drift is even worse at second level, where, at 1%, the spend in this sector is just half of the OECD average.
Again, it is students - and particularly vulnerable students - who lose out when education budgets are inadequate.
This chronic and short-sighted underinvestment results in larger class sizes, inadequate access to modern, subject-specific facilities, inadequate access to the appropriate digital devices, and subjects being taught in spaces that are often ill-suited to modern teaching and learning.
At third level, the funding deficit also results in less access to laboratories, equipment, libraries and tutorials.
We will once again make clear that, while we are in favour of positive Senior Cycle redevelopment, we remain staunchly opposed to correcting our own students for the purposes of State certification.
But in terms of new subjects and new specifications for Senior Cycle, there must be equality of access for all students, regardless of the postcode of their school.
Minister for Education Norma Foley announced last September that she was shelving plans for teachers to mark the work of their own students due to her concerns around Artificial Intelligence (AI). We believe that this was the right decision, but all stakeholders must work together to ensure that the education system is not ‘caught offside’ by AI.
We must work together to exploit its benefits for students and educators, and to highlight and limit the risks that it poses.
We will also continue to vigorously campaign for appropriate terms of employment for our members in the Further and Adult Education sector.
Our agenda evolves to reflect what is happening in the wider world at any point in time and how it impacts on education, so there will also be sections on climate action and AI.
Overall, we will make clear that investing in education not only allows individuals to reach their potential, it also pays significant dividends in societal and economic terms.
In this regard, our Government must finally match the commitment that is shown on a daily basis by students and educators.
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