Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland today withdrew from the supervision of students during break times, causing 60% of schools around the country to close.

According to RTE, most of the schools affected are in the religious-run sector where ASTI membership is concentrated. ASTI teachers insist they are not on strike, just withdrawing from supervision duties and are otherwise available for normal working hours. The lack of supervision around break times however, is deemed a health and safety issue – and forces the schools to close. Talks between the ASTI and the Department of Education are continuing but there has been no progress meaning a date for the schools to reopen is unknown. Minister for Education Richard Bruton said he is bewildered why the ASTI would decide to close schools at a vital time over one extra hour per week during teachers’ working year when there was a deal on the table. Details of the strike have remained relatively unknown but now one teacher has shared the reality of the situation. Donna Maria Leacy took to Facebook, shared a picture of her empty classroom and wrote:

“This is a picture of my classroom. Right now I should have 30 Leaving Cert. English students in front of me. But they're not here, because they can't come to school. And how did I take this picture of my classroom? Did I cross the picket? No. Because I'm not on strike today. No teachers are. Across the country teachers are sitting in their classrooms ready and more than willing to teach but because of the government's action students could not come to school on health and safety grounds. The teachers did not, as Enda Kenny said, close the schools. The government did through their inaction.”

Donna writes that the government and the media are misinforming the public about the situation. The dispute is not just over supervision pay, but rather over a desire to restore pay for lower paid teachers. She explains:

“There are two main issues in dispute: S&S and LPT pay. But what do these acronyms even mean? ‘S&S’ means supervision and substitution. This is supervising students before school, during breaks, and when teachers are away. This used to be done on a voluntary basis by teachers if they wanted to earn a little extra money. It is not a core duty. During the financial crisis, one thing teachers agreed to was to do S&S for free for a period of time. When that period was over, which it is, they would go back to being paid €6 a fortnight to do this. The government reneged on this promise and we are refusing to do this work for free. Therefore, on health and safety grounds students cannot go to school as there is no supervision. The government have a contingency plan which is to hire people from outside to do this supervision. What do they plan to pay them? €19 per hour of tax payer money. The reason schools are closed regardless of the contingency plan is that the government argue teachers did not give them enough time as it takes 6 weeks to Garda Vet anyone who wishes to work in a school. But this is incorrect. They have known this would happen since last June, five months ago. Because of all this, today, teachers are sitting in their classrooms, unpaid, wanting to teach, but students cannot enter the premises. The second issue is around ‘LPTs’: This means ‘Lower Paid Teachers’. This is what the previous strike day, and tomorrow’s strike day is for. LPTs are teachers who qualified after 2011 / 2012 and are now on a completely different pay scale and pension scheme to that of their colleagues. We are not looking for a pay rise; we are looking for pay restoration. For instance, a teacher who qualified in 2013, working 3 years with a first class honours degree and diploma will be earning €9,057 a year less simply because of when they qualified. Again, the government says a deal is on offer to the ASTI, but a teacher at this point of their career would gain absolutely nothing, and would have lost about €27000 so far over their three-year career.”

Donna hopes that in sharing the reality of the situation, the public will support teachers. Ultimately members of the ASTI have had enough of unfair treatment. “How can we preach equality to our students in the classroom if we do not have it in the staff room?” pleads Donna. Read Donna's post in full below.