The new president of St Patrick’s College has said the Government should reconsider the imposition of reduced pay for newly qualified school teachers.
He said the removal of allowances linked to teachers' academic qualifications should also be reconsidered.
At his inauguration today as the head of one of the country’s largest teacher-training colleges, Dr Daire Keogh said the new reduced pay scales had created a two-tier system within schools.
He said if the Minister for Education wanted all teachers to be educated to Masters level he should consider the introduction of rewards to incentivise graduate studies.
Dr Keogh is the 14th president of the college. He said while he appreciated the enormity of the challenge facing the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan should look creatively at how an alternative might be imagined.
Dr Keogh said the college was determined to press ahead with plans to join with DCU and the Mater Dei college to create a new Institute of Education.
