Teaching staff from Gaelcholáiste Chiarraí, Tomás Mac Muiris, Fiona Uí Mhuiris, Deirdre Ní Chochláin and Principal Austin Ó Seachnasaigh taking part in the official strike on Tuesday. Photo by Dermot Crean
SECONDARY school teachers in Tralee joined their comrades all over the country in the one day strike yesterday over changes to the Junior Certificate.
Thousands of students attending Presentation, Mercy Mounthawk, CBS The Green, Gaelcholáiste Chiarraí and Coláiste Gleann Lí had a day off as members of teaching unions walked the picket line outside the schools.
The strike was centred around the main issue of teachers being asked to mark 40% of the course work of their students, but also about resources and years of cuts to education budgets.
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TraleeToday.ie visited the schools and yesterday and spoke to ASTI Shop Steward at Mercy Mounthawk, John Dowling, about the public’s reaction to the strike.
“The public perception of what we’re doing is positive enough I think, because we’re not striking about money at all,” said John Dowling, ASTI Shop Steward at Mercy Mounthawk, as a few cars whizzed by, beeping.
“We’re striking about the students’ conditions, their welfare and education. We feel that bringing in 40% continuous assessment for the Junior Cert – which won’t be assessed by the State and will be assessed by us to our own students – will make a mockery out of the whole thing,” he added.
“You’re then giving a State certificate for an exam which hasn’t been fully assessed by the State. We don’t want to be assessing our own students because questions of bias and unfairness would be raised by parents,” said Mr Dowling.
“We’re open to project work, but we want to make sure that work is taken away and externally assessed so that an ‘A’ grade in Mercy Mounthawk is an ‘A’ in Presentation and it’s an ‘A’ in Clare and in Galway. We see how how everything is becoming so competitive with school league tables. Every school is going to want to be up there because they want to have a good reputation. So is everybody going to be fair in that instance? I hope so, but it just leaves it open to that sort of thing,” said Mr Dowling.
There is another one day strike planned for January, unless the Government and the unions can come together and work out the issues.
Scroll down for photos…
Teachers from Coláiste Gleann Lí in Clash, Ciara Walsh, Mike Quirke, Anthony Dineen, Norma Breen, Ann-Marie O’Kelly and John Joe Roche taking part in the official strike on Tuesday. Photo by Dermot Crean
Teachers from Presentation Secondary School, Clem O’Keeffe, Mary Twomey, Catriona Walsh, Sandra Moore, Alan O’Sullivan and Mary Mulcahy taking part in the official strike on Tuesday. Photo by Dermot Crean
Teachers from CBS The Green, Mike Tim O’Sullivan, John O’Mahony, Sheila Mulcahy, Ann Moynihan and Rachel Moynihan taking part in the official strike on Tuesday. Photo by Dermot Crean
Teachers from Mercy Mounthawk, Mairead McAuliffe, Bernie O’Shea, Marie O’Connor, Aisling O’Connor, Mairead O’Mahony, Lindsey Moriarty, John Dowling, Tom Benson, Catriona O’Sullivan and Ronan Redican taking part in the official strike on Tuesday. Photo by Dermot Crean
