Teachers urged to skip shopping and join the picket lines
Unions desperate to avoid repeat of last strike that led to parents’ fury as school staff hit Newry or a pre-Christmas blitz
NEARLY 30,000 second-level teachers have been told that they must engage in picket duty during their upcoming nationwide strike.
The Association of Secondary teachers in Ireland (ASTI) has said its members will be rostered for picket duty on December 2.
It plans to close thousands of schools as part of a series of strikes and disruptions over proposed changes in the Junior Cert assessment system.
Teaching union bosses want to avoid a repeat of their previous embarrassment, when thousands of their members went on pre-Christmas shopping sprees in Northern Ireland during the last national strike in December 2009.
During that public-service strike against a pensions levy, thousands of union members deserted picket
‘Pickets will take place outside school gates’
lines and headed across the Border chasing bargains.
The national public service shopping spree became an embarrassment when pictures of the M1 into Newry, full of southern-registered vehicles, were splashed across newspapers. The following day, the same road was photographed almost completely empty.
ASTI spokeswoman Gemma Tuffy said this weekend: ‘Pickets will take place outside schools, ideally outside the gates.’
She added: ‘The strike day is over Junior Cert proposals, which teachers believe will undermine national education standards. We have made clear to the minister that we are willing to engage on a number of proposals, but teachers want all state-certified exam com- ponents to be externally assessed.’
Unions will not be able to discipline teachers who ‘mitch off’ from picket lines for seasonal shopping trips.
The ASTI and Teachers Union of Ireland are also planning a further one-day strike in early January.
Talks between teacher unions and the Department of Education broke down earlier this month.
In a joint ASTI and TUI statement, they said: ‘The threat posed to educational standards by the introduction of internal assessment remains and the issue of the capacity of schools to cope with the magnitude of such change was not addressed by the department.’
Further talks broke down, with members of ASTI and the TUI insisting that Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan’s call that 40% of
‘There is no good time
to hold a strike’
the marks for State certification be awarded by students’ own teachers created an ‘impasse’.
Assessment carried out by teachers and regulated by examination boards is the norm in many other countries.
Don Myers, of the National Parents Council, said: ‘I think parents across the country will be disappointed by the action that they (teachers) are taking.
‘There is no good time for a strike; it’s equally as damaging in September as it is in January when students are gearing up for mocks.’
Clive Byrne, from the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals, said: ‘The reforms will only enhance and develop the high satisfaction expressed by the public in our education system.’