Speech by Rosena Jordan
President
Irish National Teachers Organisation
INTO Congress 2017
Waterfront Hall Belfast
17 April 2017
Fair pay for teachers
Welcome
A leas-uachtarán, a aoianna uaisle, a chomh-mhuinteoirí agus a chairde go léir. Is
mór an onóir dom, mar Uachtarain CMÉ, fáilte a chur romhaibh go dti an cathair
stairiul Béal Feriste, agus tá súil agam go mbainfidh sibh taitneamh agus tairbhe
as.
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you all to Belfast on the banks of the
Lagan river in the wee north to the 149th Congress of the Irish National Teachers’
Organisation.
Vote of thanks
At the outset I want to thank, most sincerely, the members here in Belfast, the
officials and employees of INTO Northern Office and the INTO Head Office
team who have worked above and beyond the call of duty to get us up and
running this week.
On behalf of all the 43,000 members of the INTO, north and south, that you
represent this week I thank you, the 800 delegates, who give of your time, skills
and expertise to serve your fellow teachers at this Congress. You do this on the
back of an exceptionally busy year during which you, the collective leadership of
the INTO, have engaged energetically at both local and national level, with the
many challenges we have faced since we met this time last year in Wexford.
Introduction
Our business this week will be to shape and influence teachers’ conditions of
employment most particularly in the coming year in the areas of pay restoration
and pay equalisation, securing an outcome to our pay campaign in the north and
tackling teacher workload both north and south. As a union we will use this
conference to build on work already underway and chart a course through the
year ahead to fully restore what was lost in pay, and to make good many of the
losses in the area of pensions and working conditions. This week we will also
take the lead on educational reform that is urgently required to restore what was
lost to an education service badly damaged by unprecedented austerity. Our
challenge, which we collectively embrace, is to overturn the unfairness of the
present and to work together for a fairer future.
That, in a nutshell, is what we are about this week and our priority is fair pay for
teachers, north and south. I make no apologies for demanding fair pay for our
members. What we do affects hundreds of thousands of pupils, their families
and their futures. As president this year it has been my privilege to visit schools,
to meet with INTO members in their workplaces and see for myself the
wonderful work that goes on in classrooms in all parts of the land. I know your
worth. Together we must make sure that everyone else knows it too.
I have also had the privilege of meeting INTO members at social functions and at
national, district, branch and school based meetings. I am very heartened by the
determination of INTO members young, and not so young, to work for a fairer
future for all primary teachers and, in particular, to ensure fair pay for teachers.
Pay equality
Last year, progress on pay equality was top of the INTO’s agenda, and continues
to be so. The agreement between the outgoing government and fire fighters to
address the loss in 2012 of a universal rent allowance provided a real
opportunity for the INTO. The CEC at once saw this as a potential precedent for
new entrant teachers and immediately set about utilising it on behalf of teachers.
The INTO sought a similar settlement for teachers. Over the summer, the INTO
worked to deliver that settlement – in face-to-face meetings with the
Departments of Education and Public Expenditure and Reform and in public and
private meetings with government and opposition politicians.
In respect of the public meetings we had with politicians, I want to highlight the
work of the project team on equal pay and commend, in particular, the
presentation made by the team to politicians of all sides in Leinster House on the
issue of pay equality facilitated by Senator Gerard Craughwell. Members of the
project team set out comprehensively the background to the pay inequality
position and fully answered questions from TDs and senators. This put pay
equality for teachers on the parliamentary agenda in subsequent days and weeks
and helped to build a momentum towards a resolution.
We raised the issue directly with the new minister and with the FF spokesperson
on Education and Skills in the context of the ‘supply and confidence’
arrangement of the new Dáil, given that additional funding would be required to
provide for the restoration of allowances in Budget 2017. In September 2016
agreement was reached on revised pay scales. The INTO delivered the full value
of the honours allowances for all new entrants. That was a significant
achievement for members.
I welcome this significant progress led by the INTO on resolving the equality
issue between post-2012 entrants and their immediate predecessors in 2011. It
benefits 3,500 primary teachers who started since February 2012 and every
teacher who commences from September 2016.
Let it be remembered that the INTO had secured a partial restoration under the
Haddington Road Agreement and this latest change effectively restores the
allowance in full.
However, I want to be clear. The issue of the pay of January 2011 of new entrants
to the public service was not fully resolved last September which is
acknowledged in the agreement.
The INTO continues to remind politicians and the public that pay equality is not
resolved. In September we included pay equality in our pre-budget national
lobbying day attended by over 100 members of the Oireachtas. A month later,
several thousand INTO members gathered outside the Dáil and on Patrick’s
Bridge, Cork, calling for pay equality for teachers appointed after 2011. Not for
the first time, this union’s message was that the fight for pay equality goes on,
and that unions will not give up until equal pay for equal work has been
achieved.
The INTO Labour Court challenge on pay inequality is not yet completed. This
challenge has involved substantial INTO resources and time and will continue.
We believe that this unequal pay for exactly the same work is neither justifiable
nor lawful. The great majority of new entrant teachers are young and we believe
that it is indirectly discriminatory on the age ground to pay them less for the
same work. If there was at any time an economic justification, based on
emergency circumstances, for introducing lower pay rates for new entrants, that
justification no longer exists. It should be noted also that, rather than applying
lesser pay rates to new entrants universally across the public service, the
reductions have operated only at certain grades and not at the most senior levels,
even in cases where the appointee is a new entrant to the public service.
Pay campaign in the north
Pay is also top of the INTO’s agenda here in the north and, as president, I am
fully aware of the complex and difficult circumstances INTO members in the
north find themselves in dealing with pay, workload, working conditions and
employment. We need to bring about long term resolutions to these issues in the
interests of teachers and the system as a whole that will endure into the future
for decades to come. This is not going to be easy against the present socioeconomic and political background but the INTO was never afraid of a challenge.
The INTO is committed to working with trade union colleagues in a spirit of cooperation and positivity. We are confident in our approach and, with our fellow
trade unionists, together we will be successful in the struggles ahead. After
picket duty outside a school I addressed the rally in Queens University and
witnessed the determination of INTO members and I salute you all again today.
The immediate challenge is to have the money owed for the 2015/16 year paid.
Let the Department and the employers in the north understand this dispute will
only be resolved when we are satisfied that our monies for 2015/16 are to be
paid. The INTO remains resolute and determined to achieve not only this but we
wish to achieve a broader agreement that addresses the other issues of workload,
terms and conditions and that resolves pay for the foreseeable future. North and
south, the INTO is determined to pursue and deliver fair pay for teachers.
Teacher supply
The calibre of entrants to teaching in Ireland is acknowledged as among the
highest, if not the highest, in the world. It is critical that ambitions for education
are backed by actions to ensure that teaching as a profession continues to recruit
from the brightest and the best.
We all know that fair pay for teachers is a key driver for recruitment. It is no
coincidence that the years 2011-2013 which saw pay reductions, most
significantly for new entrant teachers, also saw the first fall-off in demand for
primary teacher education courses.
In recent years there has been enormous recruitment of Irish teachers to work
abroad, in particular in the UK and the Middle East. Over 1,500 primary teachers
are on career break in the 2016/17 school year, and approximately 700 primary
teachers leave the primary payroll each and every year other than for retirement.
Higher salaries and professional contracts are the main attractions.
The 2016/17 school year has seen a shortage of substitutes available to cover for
teacher absences, despite almost 2,000 teachers completing teacher education
courses last year. I heard this first hand in practically every school I visited. We
have campaigned for more than a decade for a fully qualified teaching force
because every child is entitled to be taught by a fully qualified teacher. That
should be the corner stone or foundation for anyone hoping to build the best
education system in the world.
Yet, increasingly, this is not the case. Classes are split, other teachers are asked to
provide cover, retired colleagues are cajoled back or enthusiastic amateurs are
drafted in. This is simply unacceptable. A staffing crisis translates into falling
standards.
It can rescued by two key policy decisions. Fair pay for teachers. Regular
contracts of employment. Teachers graduating from colleges of education after
four years of study deserve better than zero hours contracts.
Benchmarking
In 2007, the Public Service Benchmarking Body (PSBB) made a significant pay
recommendation in respect of principals and deputy principals in primary
schools. Having examined the INTO submission for parity with post-primary
principals, a revised system of allowances was recommended.
The payment of the revised rate of allowance was scheduled for payment in full,
to principals and deputy principals in primary schools with effect from
September 2008, but the award remains outstanding. The payment of the award
was raised by the INTO at every possible opportunity, but without success and
the failure to pay it has become a huge source of grievance for primary principals
and deputy principals.
In the intervening period, the job of the principal at primary level has become
increasingly complex. The majority of those who would have benefitted most
from the increase are teaching principals, who carry the same level of
responsibility and accountability as their colleagues in larger schools, but who
also carry out full-time teaching duties.
The demands of legislation do not distinguish between principals on the basis of
school size or sector. The administration and responsibility associated with the
inclusion of children with special education needs has been largely carried by
principal teachers.
Since 2009 the in-school management teams in primary schools have been
decimated through the moratorium on appointments to such posts, which has
seen the loss of over 4,600 promoted posts in the primary sector alone. This is
impacting on recruitment – a significant minority of principals’ application
processes were the subject of more than one round of advertisements last year.
The case for the payment of the award has been made and won at an
independent body. The failure to implement this award has the potential to
undermine members’ confidence in pay review bodies. Implementation of the
Benchmarking award must be a priority in the context of the much stronger
economy.
The failure to restore the payment is an unfair and unjust measure, which
impacts on a section of INTO members. Recently Minister Bruton said: “We are
lucky in Ireland to have such a dedicated and committed teaching profession,
with school leaders of the highest calibre”. Fine words don’t butter potatoes. It is
past time that pay matches plámás.
Repeal of FEMPI
Cuts to public service pay must be reversed. The emergency is over. There is no
justification in continuing to penalise public servants. The measures imposed by
emergency legislation between 2009 and 2015 and the disimprovements in
working conditions imposed must be reversed. We need a road map out of the
FEMPI legislation which is acceptable to public servants and the country at large.
This can be achieved through pension levy reductions, pay restoration and
engagement with unions on terms and conditions.
It’s not rocket science. All teachers have earned a pay rise. All teachers need a
pay rise.
Pensions
The battle over pensions resumed this year. We have heard repeated claims by
Government representatives that the value of public service pensions has
increased in recent years. That is simply not true.
The fact is that there have been several adjustments to reduce the cost to the
Exchequer, including the 1995 integration with the State Pension; the 2004
changes, raising the retirement age by 10 years (to 65) for new entrant teachers;
the introduction of the PRD (Pension Levy) in 2009; and the putting in place of a
career average pension scheme for new entrants from 1 January 2013.
The cumulative effect of these changes – incrementally reducing benefits while
maintaining the level of normal employee contribution and introducing the PRD
– has been very significant.
The only sense in which the value of public service pensions may be perceived to
have increased is by comparison with the devastation of occupational pensions
in the private sector. Measures of value of this nature encourage an unacceptable
“race to the bottom” in pension provision.
The introduction of the career average pension scheme has a particular effect in
eroding the value of teachers’ pensions since the existence of a 27-point salary
scale means that relatively few years, if any, of a teacher’s career are spent at the
top of the scale. Career average has less serious implications in the case of a
worker with a short pay scale.
The so called “Single Scheme” is not a single scheme if its structure specifically
disadvantages those such as teachers with longer pay scales.
In light of the foregoing, the INTO will seek that those in the Single Pension
Scheme are no longer required to pay the pension levy.
Budget 2017
This school year started well for the INTO with a reduction of one in the staffing
schedule, additional release days for principal teachers, the recruitment of 440
teachers to meet demographics and the recruitment of 445 resource teachers at
primary level. This was down to the hard work of INTO activists and officials on
the union’s Stand up for Primary Education campaign. This was continued preBudget 2017 and sought equal pay for new entrants, further reductions in class
size, the restoration of posts, more release time for teaching principals,
benchmarking, funding for CPD and school running costs.
Despite delivering additional posts for increasing pupil numbers and special
education posts, Budget 2017 was a missed opportunity to invest in frontline
education services to enable primary schools to deliver high quality services. It
failed to build on progress in decreasing class size. There was no increase in
capitation grants. €8m for on-going curricular reform in areas such as primary
language is derisory, €5m to implement a new action plan for educational
disadvantage is an insult. Measures to commence the restoration of middle
management posts in September 2017 that discriminated against primary schools,
a pattern repeated with ICT funding.
The government effectively abandoned the Programme for Government at the
first hurdle, making a nonsense of all subsequent ambitious pronouncements by
the new Minister for Education to make Ireland the best education system in the
world in ten years.
You can’t will success. You can’t wish in excellence.
I want to move on to some key issues that teachers today face in their schools
and classrooms every day.
All through the recession primary teachers continued to cooperate with reforms
in education as part of general public service reform. We have embraced revised
curriculum developments, currently the Primary Language Curriculum, but to
include mathematics and other subjects in future. We have implemented the use
of new report cards and the Education Passport, a reporting system on children’s
progress and achievement for transfer to post-primary education. We have taken
a more active role in supporting their new colleagues by upskilling in mentoring
as part of the National Induction Programme for teachers, as well as supporting
and advising student teachers on extended placements in their schools. We have
embraced inclusion and support the enrolment of children with special
educational needs, children for whom English is an additional language, and
migrant children. We are implementing a new approach to allocating additional
teachers to schools to support children with special educational needs, an
approach which places additional demands on principal teachers and leadership
teams at school level. Primary teachers continue to cooperate with revised
arrangements for school inspections and evaluations.
Special education
This year we see a new approach to the allocation of additional teachers to
schools to support children with special needs. Each individual’s school
allocation will be based on their educational profile. As we transition to this new
model, an additional 680 posts were made available for primary schools. Many
schools welcomed gains in allocations while no schools lost. Let us not forget
that, under the current model, about 1,000 schools lose resource hours every year.
That’s the positive story.
From the time the proposals were first mooted, the INTO had reservations about
some aspects and we still do. We demanded the piloting of the proposals, and
this was done. 28 primary schools participated. Following feedback from the
INTO the proposals were adjusted and the model that was launched last January
reflects some of our demands.
We still have strong reservations about the use of standardised tests for the
purposes of allocating resources to schools. But, if they are being used, children
with a STeN 4 should be included, and the model should acknowledge that some
children are exempt from the tests. This has been done.
We still have a concern about the definition of complex special educational needs.
The proposed new definition is too narrow. There are many children receiving
resource hours whose needs are complex, but who won’t come under the new
definition. So our question is where will these pupils fit in the school’s profile?
Some of them may be low achievers, but not all of them are. These pupils will
still need support. They must, therefore, be part of the profile.
The INTO demanded an appeal system. This has been granted, but the INTO has
condemned the narrow grounds for appeal as the process does not address the
genuine concerns that schools have about their allocations.
The new allocation model has potential to enhance provision for children with
special educational needs in our schools. The impact of the model will be closely
monitored by the INTO and we will continue to demand further changes and
adjustments to the model in light of the experience of schools. Our challenge will
be to retain all special education teaching posts in our schools, and to seek more
posts in line with increases in our school population. More than one in four
teaching posts in primary schools are special education posts. Whoever would
have thought that when the first resource teacher was appointed in the 1990s!
DEIS
This year at last, the much needed and awaited Review of DEIS has been
published, twelve years after its original inception in 2005. There is much to be
welcomed in the review, particularly the fact that additional schools have been
invited to participate in DEIS under the new identification model. Among its
merits is the commitment to school-based speech and language, hunger
prevention and local area based programmes. At the end of the day, as teachers
of the most vulnerable children, ‘you can’t begin to do the bloom stuff until you
take care of the Maslow stuff’. For teachers, it is positive that sabbatical leave
scheme is back on the agenda.
However, the plan doesn’t go all the way in addressing the effects of poverty and
social inclusion in education. It was particularly disappointing that the issue of
class size was not addressed. At least we know for next year that no DEIS school
will lose resources. The INTO will monitor the new identification process to see
whether it works for schools. There were many schools that were surprised they
were not included in DEIS this year. An bhliain seo chugainn, b’fhéidir.
Curriculum
17 years after the 1999 Primary School Curriculum, the implementation of the
Revised Primary Language Curriculum has commenced. This school year, all
schools are being invited to a whole-school professional development day on the
oral language strand of the curriculum. But we know that’s not enough. It’s only
the beginning.
The INTO requested an additional whole-school planning day to allow teachers
to reflect on their professional development day and begin the process of
planning to implement the oral language strand of the curriculum. While the
additional day has been granted, the INTO are now seeking a deferment until
next year to allow schools time to plan properly. We are also seeking a deferment
of the professional development planned for next year on reading and writing.
Investing in teachers through time and professional development will pay off in
the long term. Caithfear an bhunchloch a chur.
Early years
In recognition of the primary school’s strong tradition of infant teaching in the
early years, the INTO has suggested to the DES that the second year of free preschool should be provided as a pre-junior infant year as part of the infant cycle in
primary schools with qualified teachers. The INTO suggested a pilot, initially in
DEIS schools where children are generally younger when they start school, and
where they have capacity. The two years of free pre-school has implications for
us in primary schools, including implications for the curriculum we teach.
An Ghaeltacht
Sa deireadh thiar d’fhoilsigh An Roinn Oideachais polasaí don oideachas sa
Ghaeltacht, Mí Deireadh Fómhair seo caite. Tá sé thar am don rialtas a bheith
dáiríre faoi chúrsaí oideachais sa Ghaeltacht atá faoi bhrú le fada an lá. Tá
cúraímí breise curtha ar COGG agus ní mór na hacmhainní a bheith ar fáil do
COGG chun a gcuid dualgas a chomhlíonadh. Tá súil againn go mbeidh cabhair
bhreise ar fáil do na scoileanna. Beidh cuid acu ag plé leis an tumoideachas don
chéad uair. Tá cearta ag cainteoirí dúchais Gaeilge agus tá cearta ag na
foghlaimeoirí. Is dúshlán é an dá thrá a fhreastail. An leor an tacaíocht a bheas ar
fáil? Ní fios, ach neosfaidh an aimsir.
Human Rights and Global Solidarity
I am particularly proud of the work the INTO has progressed in the area of
global solidarity over the last year under the three principal areas of activity:
Volunteering, Campaigning and Learning:
The INTO recently hosted 6 delegates from an Indian teacher union, KhasiJaintia Deficit School Teachers Assoc. (KFDSTA), for a week of trade union
training in February.
Another highlight of my year was sharing a podium with President Michael D.
Higgins at the Mansion House when launching the Global Citizenship Growth of
the Global Citizenship Schools, now reaching 50 schools so far – many more
needed.
Support of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development, and Education Goal 4
in particular, must be a cornerstone for all trade union work in the coming years.
The INTO will be fully involved in lobbying Government and promoting the
Global Goals throughout the union.
Recently the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
reported there are around 65 million forcibly displaced people in the world, with
around a third of that number considered refugees. An astonishing 51% of
refugees under the UNHCR mandate are children: 6 million are of school age,
many separated from their parents or travelling alone. Once displaced, a refugee
child has little prospect of returning home before adulthood, which means that
their only access to education is in their host country. Of the 6 million children
under the UNHCR mandate about 3.7 million have no school.
Ireland is well placed to offer settling refugees a warm welcome. Improving
communication and attention to detail is important but resource provision is
essential. Schools need additional help to be able to give extra attention to young
refugees such as access to intensive language learning and trauma counselling
and in-service programmes are necessary to equip teachers to meet young
refugees’ educational needs. Schools ability to cope will be stretched beyond
reasonable limits by resource reductions. Government and local authorities are
duty-bound to think very carefully before slimming down ways in which they
support young people.
Blinkered approaches from some right-wing populist politicians are risky,
stirring up resentment and storing up problems. The imperative to support
security, democracy and sustainable development means that governments, civil
society and the trade union movement must stand together to respect the rights
of all people. Through Education International (the world’s largest federations of
teaching unions) the INTO will continue to work with refugees, teacher union
leaders, refugee teachers, education ministers and international experts to
promote ongoing international dialogue.
Conclusion
As the president of the 149th INTO Congress who met with excellent hard
working teachers in all 32 counties this year, I have every confidence, delegates,
that we will make the right choices for our education systems and the members
who work in them.
The INTO is the collective leadership of those members in those thousands of
schools, large and small, urban and rural. This week that collective leadership
must pursue, in the spirit of our founding president Vere Foster, with vigour and
determination a fairer future for all. At its centre, fair pay for teachers.
I share your determination to ensure that teachers are fairly rewarded for their
expertise, dedication and the excellent work they do every day in the form of a
fair pay cheque.
And I share the determination to make sure that teachers have the resources to
do their job to the best of their ability for the children they teach. That
determination must be at the heart of everything we decide this week as we
work for a fairer future.
Go raibh maith agaibh go leir.