I wish to share my time with Senator O'Toole.
Adjournment Matters. - Recognition of Teaching Years.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I am pleased to have the opportunity to raise on the Adjournment the refusal of the Department of Education to recognise for incremental purposes the teaching years of B.Ed. national school teachers at St. Michael's Junior School, Ailesbury Road in Dublin.
Half of the teaching staff of six in St. Michael's, all of whom are fully qualified, have found that at the end of this year they will have no alternative but to leave their employment. The reason they must leave is the lack of departmental recognition of their years of service in St. Michael's for incremental purposes should they decide to return to the national school system and their inability to gain teaching diplomas while in a private school.
What do the teachers want? They want departmental recognition of their years of teaching service in St. Michael's for incremental salary purposes in the event of their taking up posts in the national school system. At present, if they leave St. Michael's they will drop back to the beginning of the national school salary scale. Recognising their years of service will not cost the State anything. They are not looking for financial assistance for the school or for themselves at this time. St. Michael's is self sufficient and, in many ways, the fact that the teachers are employed there means they are saving the State money.
I am asking that teaching service at St. Michael's be recognised for the purpose of obtaining the teaching diploma on the part of the B.Ed. staff members who have not yet been certified. This implies that departmental inspectors would visit the school for the purpose of awarding teachers their teaching diplomas at no extra cost to the State. There is a form of certification which all B.Ed. teachers must obtain within five years of taking up a post in a national school. As matters stand, the qualified teachers in the school are leaving either to obtain their teaching diplomas, which they cannot get in St. Michael's, or to avoid a huge drop in salary for those already certified should they return to the national school system.
The teachers in St. Michael's are all properly qualified. The official curriculum is the curriculum of the Department of Education and that is fully implemented. The anomaly is that the Department of Education recognises teaching experience outside this country and should teachers return to teach in this country they will be given their full increments. Teachers who teach in schools such as St. Michael's are told that their years are not recognised because the school is private and fee paying. However, their colleagues in St. Michael's secondary school and Catholic schools elsewhere are also teaching in private, fee paying schools and their years are recognised.
A number of serious issues are raised by this. There is a constitutional issue. Article 42.4 of the Constitution states: "The State shall provide for free primary education and shall endeavour to supplement and give reasonable aid to private and corporate educational initiative...". However, I do not wish to deal with that issue this evening. This is a simple case of equality. These teachers, whether due to a departmental anomaly or for ideological reasons, do not have the same rights as teachers who teach for five or 20 years outside this country and who return to the Irish education system. Those who teach outside this country do not necessarily have to teach in State schools abroad. Those who teach in Catholic schools in the US will have that service recognised when they return.
The Department of Education has stated a number of circumstances under which incremental credit is granted. One of these is relevant non-teaching experience. Each case is considered on its merits but must have a direct input into primary education. These people have a direct input into primary education. All of them are excellent teachers, properly qualified and follow the curriculum laid down by the Department. Yet for some strange reason their years of service will not be recognised for incremental purposes if they should go elsewhere.
This is a clear case of discrimination and there is no justification for it. There will be no objection from teachers' unions and others involved in education if this situation is changed. The Minister may tell me that the number of teachers involved is small. I ask the Minister, in the case of the teachers of St. Michael's and others affected in this way, that action would be taken immediately. This is a matter of urgency. These people must make plans for the next academic year and are now at the point where they must give notice of this.
This is not an anomaly but an injustice. It is extraordinary that people with non-teaching experience can be recognised for incremental purposes while fully qualified people teaching the curriculum correctly cannot get recognition in terms of incremental credit. This is unacceptable. Senator Manning feels it is a constitutional issue. The INTO also feels that these teachers are being invidiously discriminated against because they happen to be working in a non-State school.
We also believe it is contrary to the agreed consolidation report on this area, from which Senator Manning quoted, which refers to non-teaching and appropriate teaching experience. If these people were teaching in a private school in Kuwait, the US or anywhere else, they would get recognition for the time they worked. There is absolutely no reason for this. The INTO will fight the battle for these people. If they come back into the national school system and are deprived of incremental credit, the issue will certainly be raised and supported by the INTO. It is wrong, unjustifiable and insupportable and I ask the Minister to closely examine it.
In the course of the recent negotiations on the package between the teaching unions and the Department, we made specific reference to this case, not by name but as an example of the difficulties which have arisen in this area. One of the side agreements which is part of this major deal is that there would be a so called small claims court within the conciliation and arbitration system where individual cases or cases involving small numbers of people could be dealt with in an open and acceptable fashion. This is one of the first cases that should be put into such a court.
This creates an extraordinary sense of insecurity. I find this difficult to accept from a Government which issues big plans about the difficulties of unemployed people. Being unemployed is one thing; being employed without security and worrying about one's future is another and causes exactly the same difficulties to people. It is wrong that they should be put in this position. They are not looking for anything to which they are not entitled. They are doing trojan work and have a commitment to the State. We should give them this recognition and I urge that this be conceded.
I thank Senator Manning and Senator O'Toole for raising this issue.
The criteria for the granting of incremental credit to primary teachers is a matter of agreement between the education partners and the Department of Education. The agreed conditions are set out in the agreed reports of the Teachers' Conciliation Council. Broadly speaking, there are three areas where incremental credit is allowable: approved teaching service abroad; approved substitute teaching service/ and relevant non-teaching service.
In the case of approved teaching service abroad, the period for which credit may be allowed is limited to seven years — four years in the case of service given prior to 1 June, 1979. In the case of teachers trained in Northern Ireland or Britain, however, credit is given for all previous recognised trained teaching service in schools in Northern Ireland or Britain, provided the teacher has passed An Scrúdú Cáilíochta sa Ghaeilge, written and oral.
In general, the following conditions apply: (a) the school in which the teaching service was given must be subject to inspection by the State authorities; (b) the teaching service must have been given in a full time capacity; (c) the school must be in receipt of State funding and (d) the teacher must have been in receipt of incremental salary from the State. Conditions (c) and (d) may be waived in certain circumstances.
In the case of substitute teaching service, credit is limited to approved substitute service in national schools and is subject to a maximum of two years' incremental credit.
Relevant non-teaching service refers to non-teaching experience where the service is deemed to be of direct relevance to the current teaching post. Before an award of incremental credit can be considered under this heading, the organisation involved must provide a full job description of the work involved and must also certify as follows: (a) that the service was full-time; (b) that a salary was paid in respect of the service and (c) that the teacher had the necessary qualifications for the post at the time the service was given. A maximum of five years incremental credit may be awarded in these circumstances.
The school referred to by Senator Manning and Senator O'Toole, St. Michael's Junior School, Ailesbury Road, Dublin 4, is a privately funded school. As such, it is not in receipt of any State funding nor would it be subject to inspection by the Department of Education. There are no arrangements in place at present where incremental credit may be allowed in respect of teaching service in such schools.
Because of the strong arguments put forward by both Senators, I will ask the departmental officials to look tomorrow at the issues raised and to discuss them in turn with the Minister.
I thank the Minister for his last sentence in his reply; it gives some hope. However, this matter will not go away and we will be pursuing it vigorously and I also press on the Minister the time element involved.