Education funding 'paltry and pitiful'
The General Secretary of the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) Michael Gillespie has said that the Irish education system continues to suffer from chronic and deliberate underfunding, which he described as a legacy of austerity prolonged by political indifference.
Mr Gillespie made the remarks during an address to the TUI Annual Congress which is taking place in Wexford.
"Our economic circumstances are no longer an excuse for paltry spending and pitiful investment," Mr Gillespie said.
"The time for hollow promises is over. What is needed now is decisive, transformative investment in public education - investment that recognises the value of our work and the needs of our students," he added.
The theme of this year's TUI Congress is 'Address Inequality, Invest in Education'.
The conference will be addressed by Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless later today and by Minister for Education Helen McEntee tomorrow.
The event is being attended by over 500 delegates and guests, with motions being debated on issues such as pay, pensions, housing and the conflict in Gaza.
Pay
On the issue of pay, the TUI General Secretary told delegates that a 1% pay increase linked to a local bargaining mechanism under the current public sector pay deal had created uncertainty.
"The remaining 2% of the possible 3% increase is not guaranteed and will likely become a key battleground in the next round of pay negotiations," Mr Gillespie said.
"This places a heavy reliance on a future deal, and introduces a real risk of delay or dilution."
"However, it is essential that productivity-linked increases under local bargaining do not become a Trojan horse for additional workload, work intensification, or unrealistic efficiency demands," he added.
Burnout
The TUI General Secretary said that excessive workloads and work intensification are breaking the teaching profession.
He told delegates that members have repeatedly raised the alarm about an ever-increasing workload and never enough time, a spiral he described as unsustainable.
"It is becoming a serious health and well-being crisis. Let us call it what it is: burnout and the burnout is real and impacting our profession," Mr Gillespie said.
Teacher shortages
The TUI conference was told that the problem of teacher recruitment and retention is a crisis of the Government's own making, and the inevitable result of repeated decisions to force the education system to do more with fewer resources.
The General Secretary said that the union welcomes the recent decision to allow teachers to gain permanent contracts sooner but that this is not enough.
"To tackle the teacher supply crisis, further urgent steps are needed before it becomes a national emergency from which as other countries have discovered there is no coming back from," he said.
Mr Gillespie called for enhanced allocations for schools so they can offer full hours to teachers, clear career pathways and progression opportunities for teachers to encourage them to stay in the profession, and the removal of barriers faced by teachers returning from abroad must be removed, starting with recognition of teaching service overseas.
Leaving Cert reform
The TUI conference was told that accelerated Senior Cycle reform is the most urgent and demanding challenge currently facing second-level education.
Delegates heard that teachers are being asked to absorb sweeping changes to assessment models and methodologies, all while maintaining their existing teaching commitments.
"This is creating an unsustainable workload and stretching school structures to breaking point," Mr Gillespie said.
He added that if the reforms are to succeed, structural supports must be put in place.
He also warned that the rapid evolution of technology and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) had brought both opportunities and serious challenges which must be strategically integrated into the process, not simply added on, so they support, rather than burden, educators.
Speaking ahead of travelling to Killarney, Minister for Education Helen McEntee said she wanted to do what she could to support teachers to make sure that Leaving Certificate reforms would be a success.
She said it was "really important" for students that reform moved ahead.
Ms McEntee acknowledged that there was further work to be done on a number of fronts, including in relation to support for teachers on the subject of AI.
Teachers are concerned that AI could be used inappropriately by students working on projects that form part of their final assessments and that in seeking to verify that work is students' own, they may not be able to detect this.
One motion due to be debated by ASTI delegates seeks a legal indemnity for teachers in such a case.
"AI is already here and it is most important that teachers know how to work with it," Ms McEntee said.
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