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THE COUNTRY’S PRIMARY school principals are at “breaking point” said the General Secretary of the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO).
Speaking at their annual conference today, Sheila Nunan has demanded an end to the moratorium on promotion in primary schools.
Addressing the Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn she criticised that since 2008, posts lost through retirement or teachers moving jobs have not been replaced.
Staffing cuts
She said that the the country’s primary school principals had been badly affected by this promotion embargo and other staffing cuts.
Nunan said that school principals were being stretched too far, with two thirds of primary schools have teaching principals who have a full-time teaching responsibility.
She called for release time from classroom teaching of one day per week to cope with the workload of school administration.
Nunan was also critical of the new initiatives being introduced when the resources are not put in place to implement them, stating that schools are being told to take on initiatives in literacy, numeracy and tackling bullying but there “is absolutely no understanding of the lack of support or backup available to principals to lead these duties”.
Workload
“A review of principals’ workload with realisable solutions is a matter of urgency,” said Nunan.
She said Minister Quinn “could talk as much as he wanted about modernisation, reform agendas, improvement or change but it would only ever be an illusion, a smokescreen and ultimately a waste of time”.
Nunan also called for the pension levy on public servants to be phased out, stating it was “unfair”.
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The pension levy was just a dishonest form of pay cut. I hope it is phased out for all public servants who already make meaningful pension contributions.
What is meaningful. If you wanted to buy a iron clad pension in the market you would be looking at roughly saving 30% of your salary each year. A 30,000 pension will cost you a cool million.
With so many variations in public sector pay tems and conditions it would be a difficult one to determine David. Pension terms have also changed for new entrants to career average. Some pay hardly any PRSI for example but are not entitled to a state pension. At the moment there are two pension deductions on salary statements. The pension levy is even deducted from overtime etc, most of which is not taken into account when calculating final pension so this is very unfair.
My own proposal would be for a complete change to the pension system to an individualised system. For example, if the employee contributes 5% of salary, the state matches it. Then you get what you paid in (plus interest etc) like the rest of us have to make do with. It would also be more flexible in that you could take it with you if you decide to do something else.
Sure but that would never happen because the very generous nature of public pensions would become apparent. You need to save an awful lot of money for even a very small pension and annuity rates are extremely low.
Join a union!
First day of work after two weeks off and they are already “broken”. Summer hols are coming, chill.
Go and be a teacher
Pete,
If I’d me time again I’d jump at it. Holidays holidays and eh more holidays. Sure every principal I know plays off scratch.
Work with children? No way Pedro.
They always had those holidays Andrew. That has not changed since you were in school. There was Notting stopping you being a teacher. If you made the wrong career choice that’s your fault.
Never had mid terms in primary when I was goin to school. Late 70s 80s.
Sure they’ve every afternoon free while the rest of us are at work.
Should you not be at work rather than on the web David?? ;-)
Judging by the quality of his comment and his user photo, David should still be in class
Ah poor things. Their overbloated salary should compensate them adequately.
Any facts to back up your ill informed rhetoric?
And they just turn up every morning totally prepared off the top of their heads to spend the day teaching After spending the afternoon on the golf course and the evening watching TV
Aren’t you lucky to have a job?.
Stop picking on the teachers… I get stressed trying to select a book a 14 day holiday…
Imagine what they have to go through!!!
Why are you not a teacher ?
I like to work for a living…!
(Only joking)… I was better suited to a different career… and the money isn’t good enough.
Is not people’s choice to do what ever career they want ? Every one can go train to be a teacher everyone knows about these holidays they get. That’s part of the job.
People dont want to teach because they want real jobs where theyre challenged by other adults….must be brain numbing teaching idiots….no offence kids!
Having worked with both adults and children I’m firmly of the opinion that children are much more creative, intelligent and sensible !
Teachers whingeing again. Do they ever stop ?
60k a year and two months off in summer. Life must be unbearable.
Not to mind dealing with behavioural issues, children with a range of abilities, a child who may not have a word of English, children with domestic problems, maintaining interest amongst children, ensuring ALL children make progress, cleaning cuts and vomit. Oh ya and actually teaching, marking, planning, assessing and so on which is done outside of teaching hours. Also teachers DO NOT get paid for holidays. We get paid for 183 working days… Our salaries are spread across 12 months. Rant over.
People are “cherry picking” salaries….then teachers cherry pick about the troubled kids they teach….which, lkke the high salaries would be the minority. Please at least be consistant.
I fully accept your description of a typical workload for a teacher. I taught for over thirty years. However please don’t peddle the myth that we are/ were not paid for the holidays. I never heard that in my entire teaching career. Neither did any of my colleagues and I taught in three schools in different counties. We were paid over the year but only taught for 183 days. That’s the truth of it. To try and deny our salaries for our generous time off is just untrue. It’s a modern phenomena to try and explain away our lengthy holidays. It’s a great perk of a teachers job and it’s well deserved when you’ve worked honestly and fairly. The children need the breaks more than the teachers. Enjoy the perk for what it is. We are paid for the years work and that’s the long and the short of it!
I work hard in my job Mary as do many others, I don’t believe I am entitled to lengthy holidays like teachers. While I wouldn’t say teachers have it handy, I do believe they are very well compensated all round – it seems they are never content with their lot.
Good woman Mary great to see someone talking sense
If you taught small children and the very demanding job it is to manage them and their many personalities you might appreciate the need for the regular breaks! I’m not denying that most people work very hard in all walks of life. Teaching is what I know and while I never denied the perks of long holidays and my decent salary compared to the young teachers starting out now I also know that I was lucky to have enjoyed a very satisfying career as a primary teacher. Every other worker whether public or private has meagre holiday entitlements and most work extremely hard. Teaching is just that bit different.
Well deserved? Are you ACTUALLY serious?!
I am! After a long career and having been principal of a large school for ten years I know the profession inside out and I know how hard most teachers work. However I too dislike the constant whinging at this time of the year. It comes across very badly and I certainly don’t condone disrespectful childish behaviour towards the relevant Minister. The unions job is to protect members interests. It’s how it’s done that counts. And being realistic about the current situation in the country. Things could have and should have been done differently. But we have elections coming up and our voices can count where it matters.
Craig, you sign up for the terms and conditions on offer. Teachers are paid for a certain amount of work. It just happens to be paid over a certain period of time. I have taught both sides of the water and Irish teachers spend more time teaching than their U.K counterparts.
Their The best paid teachers in Europe If They dont like it then jog on.
No less than six grammar mistakes in your post.
Your English teacher certainly didn’t earn his or her pay.
Factually incorrect garbage as usual. Irish teachers are the sixth highest paid in Europe and teach 180 hours a year more than counterparts in OECD.
Let’s not get into the issue of the inability of primary school teachers and principals to read and write proper English. Maybe instead of more holidays or money they should ask for spelling and grammar refresher lessons for themselves!
I would think that as school principals are already represented by the Irish Primary Principal’s Network, the INTO might be better off worrying about conditions for newly qualified teachers, but then these new teachers aren’t permanent or pensionable and would not necessarily by paying the same union dues as older colleagues.
Ignorant comment. All INTO members pay the same union fee ! And the IPPN is not part of the INTO – many principals are not members of it either! It’s actually a Department funded professional association !
Here here Michael !
Nothing ticks off a private sector worker better than a public sector worker moaning about one thing or another…. particularly when said public sector worker has the shortest working year in the OECD.
And said public sector worker teaches 180 hours a year more than OECD counterparts. It was said in the same report. Easy to cherry pick facts.
I think it’s the principals workload is the problem especially if they have to teach as well
Could we not just pay them more so I don’t have to listen to their constant rubbish
Very few teachers earn 60k a year. As usual the top tiny percent are quoted!!
Whats the average mary?
The salaries if they are at 60K are very good as they get stable pension as well. Most people do not have a pension at all by large.
A meaningless statistic! If you had honours maths you would know this. Its the mode or the bell curve you want to look up.
So salaries are a “meaningless statistic”? And you’re a teacher??!!
My repy was aimed at the notion of an average salary. In statistics average without further information is meaningless.
Am i right in saying teachers are retiring this year to take advantage of a pension scheme?? Go onto publicjobs.ie and check out all ghe vacancies….
Not quite true James. Many teachers with full service were planning to retire this year or suffer further pay cuts resulting in smaller future pensions. Wouldn’t you ?
Are you f#cki@g kidding me????? I personally know two, who take 2 x 10 day holidays a year!!!!! Is this article a joke?????
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