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TEACHERS Union of Ireland (TUI) members will stage a lunchtime protest over pay inequality next week at many schools and educational institutions in Kerry and around the country.
At lunchtime on Thursday, February 1, Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) members will protest against pay inequality outside the post-primary schools, FET Centres, colleges of further education and Institutes of Technology in which they work. Service to students will not be affected by the protest.
The TUI say teachers and lecturers who entered the system since 2011 are paid at a lower rate (lower salary scale) than their colleagues for carrying out the same work.
“Pay inequality has undermined the teaching profession and corroded staff morale, leading to a crisis in the recruitment and retention of teachers. This inevitably impairs the quality of service to students.
Recruitment problems are evident both across the country and across a broad range of subjects including, but not limited to, Mathematics, Science, Modern Languages, Irish and Home Economics,” reads a statement from the TUI.
There has been a 62% collapse in applications for post-primary teacher training courses since 2011, while a TUI survey in 2017 showed that 29% of new or recent entrants to the profession did not see themselves in the job in ten years’ time.
The emigration rate of recently qualified post-primary teachers has increased from 4% in 2008 to 18%-21% in 2014.
“The only guaranteed way of ensuring the retention of teachers and the recruitment of those needed for the future is to repair the professional integrity of teaching by restoring pay equality,” reads the statement.
