Secondary teachers belonging to the ASTI are on a collision course with the Department of Education and Skills over the scheduling of meetings that form part of the Junior Cycle reforms.
This evening, the ASTI has confirmed that it will refuse to hold Subject Learning Assessment Review (SLAR) meetings out of hours.
However, the Department has warned that schools that hire substitute teachers to accommodate SLAR meetings during school hours could end up losing teachers as a result of this policy.
Under the Junior Cycle reforms introduced some years ago, groups of teachers are required to hold two two-hour SLAR meetings per annum for each subject to assess samples of students' work and ensure consistency in grading.
As most teachers teach two subjects, this would require 8 hours per year.
The Department says that partly to accommodate such meetings, teachers were granted 22 hours a year of "professional time", with 670 additional teachers hired to enable this.
However, it says some schools are hiring substitute teachers to cover teachers during SLAR meetings held during tuition time.
It says this amounts to paying "on the double" - and that schools who do so could see a reduction in their teaching allocations.
Today, the Department issued a Circular noting that the time for SLAR meetings is supported through the "bundling" of the 22 hours of professional time.
The Circular states that paid substitution, as well as supervision and substitution, may not be used to facilitate SLAR meetings other than in certain limited circumstances.
The Circular outlines four options for scheduling SLAR meetings, three of which involve no paid substitution.
However, if the fourth option involving substitution is availed of the Circular states: "The reduction in teacher allocation to the school may result in the loss of teaching posts in the school."
In a statement this evening, the ASTI rejected the Department Circular as unacceptable, and said it would be directing members to stick to the terms of a previous directive which states: "Members should only attend SLAR meetings on the basis that they must be scheduled to start and end within normal tuition hours, and only a limited number may run beyond school tuition hours for some of the duration of the meeting."
ASTI President Deirdre MacDonald pointed out that the Department had previously agreed that the new Framework for Junior Cycle would not result in increased workload for teachers, and that adequate additional teaching resources would be made available to schools to facilitate its implementation - including the implementation of SLAR meetings.
She stated: "It is clear that Circular 0017/ 2020 is not compliant with these documents. As such the Circular is unacceptable to the ASTI."
Ms MacDonald added that the approach of the circular represented "...a perpetuation of the gross underfunding of Irish second-level education despite assurances to the contrary".
She said that despite Irish schools performing well above average in international comparisons, teachers - and ultimately their students - were once again being asked to make up for the funding shortfall in Irish education.
An ASTI spokesperson added that regarding the issue of substitute teachers covering for teachers attending part of a SLAR meeting, the ASTI had made a proposal to the Department of Education and Skills concerning the scheduling of SLAR meetings which involved a "very minimal" need for such substitution.
However, the spokesperson said this proposal had been rejected by the Department.
The Teachers' Union of Ireland which also represents secondary teachers facilitates meetings outside tuition time.
