'It has been government policy for the last number of years to cut back on education' says Mullingar teacher

Olga Aughey

Some secondary schools around Mullingar are closed today as members of the Teachers' Union of Ireland strike over unequal pay.

The entire staff of Mullingar Community College marched in protest on Tuesday over "pay equality".

Mullingar Community College is one of around 345 post-primary schools run by the country’s Education and Training Boards which have closed for the day.

Teacher and TUI rep Joe Rayfus, speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, said:

"There are young members of our staff that are doing the same jobs as us and being paid substantially less".

"I'm aware of loads of cases in schools across the country where young teachers have to supplement their wages with part time employment just to make ends meet.

"A lot of those teachers are on very small contracts, limited with the number of hours they are contracted to work.

"This means they are relying heavily on substitution teaching to try and make it up and that's having a knock-on effect with a shortfall on new entrant teachers and students are suffering as a result of that.

"Obviously want to be able to offer as many subjects as possible and as many levels with those subjects. So it's government policy and the pay and equality has really had a knock-on effect on the students and staff."

The strike action comes as mock exams begin for many Leaving and Junior Certificate students, and students pursuing the Leaving Certificate Applied programme prepare for assessments that form part of their final results.

"It's far from ideal," Joe says. "Nobody ever really wants to go out on strike. But the reality of it is that we're not only looking at this year's students, we're looking at the other exam years and students coming in.

"We obviously want to offer the highest quality of education but we want our colleagues treated fairly as well."

The union said the action is about making clear to all political parties and General Election candidates that its campaign will continue until pay discrimination is eliminated

"It has been government policy for the last number of years to cut back on education, and we look at the recession and everything else, we're an economy based on a high standard of education and you'd have concerns about the future if we are being cut all the time," finished Mr Rayfus.

St Finian's College in Mullingar is one of at least 50 other schools that have had to shut its doors as a result of the action, because teaching staff belong to both the TUI and the ASTI trade unions.

Meanwhile a small percentage of teaching staff in St Mary CBS also marched on strike but the school remained open.