War of words deepens over loss of teaching posts

By Niall Murray, Education Correspondent

Saturday, August 08, 2009

THE war of words deepened yesterday between a teachers’ union and the Department of Education over the number of teaching posts to be lost in second-level schools this autumn because of budget cutbacks.

The department rejected as "unnecessarily alarmist" a claim by the Teachers’ Union of Ireland on Thursday that, based on figures published on the department website, 3,600 teaching posts would be lost in the country’s 730 second-level schools.

The department stressed again that this is the number based on the teacher allocation process up to early June but that it still expects there will be 240 fewer teachers at second-level when all allocations are made later this year.

"Between January and May this year, 1,400 posts went into the system over the initial allocation. The bulk of the extra posts in any year are for special needs and language support requirements, so for the TUI to present their figures as a fait accompli is misleading and mischievous," a spokesperson said.

The spokesperson also reiterated that no teachers with a permanent contract would lose their jobs, although they could be redeployed to another school.

TUI president Don Ryan said the union resents being labelled "alarmist" and that the statistics published on the department’s website on Thursday require an urgent and thorough clarification.

"The department’s comments offer precious little clarification on what is a hugely serious issue with the new school year just weeks away. TUI understands that the department already has the figures for the special needs allocation for schools and it is difficult to understand why these have not been included in the figures published," he said.

Asked by the Irish Examiner for comparative figures for the same stage in the process last year, the department said no such figures were available. It was also unable to answer questions about the number or outcomes of appeals by schools against teacher losses which would affect their ability to offer subject choices or a mix of higher and ordinary level classes.

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Saturday, August 08, 2009