The Teaching Council

delta_bravo

Eh they dont care about your complaints.

As they said to us a month ago in a lecture: "We are not your friends, we are not here to help you. We're here to make sure you uphold the standards of the profession".

E.T.

delta_bravo wrote: »

Eh they dont care about your complaints.

As they said to us a month ago in a lecture: "We are not your friends, we are not here to help you. We're here to make sure you uphold the standards of the profession".

Which is ironic coming from the shower of incompetents that managed to register unqualified people as teachers.

Postgrad10

Delta bravo

The teaching council man also said the council wasn't going to be our facebook friend . I was so hurt.:p

The ignorance , of course us teaching practice students spend all our time on facebook :mad:

He pretty much said himself, the teaching council was set up because we were the only country who didn't have a council .

spurious

We may not have had a council, but is there anything they do that was not already being done by some section of the Department (also in Irish, though probably not on as fancy páipéar)?

Postgrad10

You are absolutely correct Spurious . Such a waste of money and resources. Could have been done with a bit more effort on behalf of the department of ed. I have to say from my experience so far and the way friends have been treated they don't show much respect to teachers.

sickofthiscrap

I emailed Teaching council last year and got nowhere.Just sob sob story that they were enduring the same hardships as the rest of us.:(

Sent another enail Tues after recieving the renewal form.Got a reply from the same idiot who just sent me the email he had sent me last year!How lazy they are.:eek:

We need to contact them enmasse and the unions too!:mad:

Is it true re not paying for registration? A friend of mine has never joined. They used to send her letters but stopped doing it now

rainbowtrout

It's amazing that they take forever to get back to you when you call/email them with a query if at all, but when they are taking money off you they can be amazingly efficient.

I paid my subscription online on wednesday morning and had my card in the post on thursday morning, less than 24 hours turnaround time! If they could be this efficient with everything we would be complaining far less.

Delphi91

rainbowtrout wrote: »

..I paid my subscription online on wednesday morning and had my card in the post on thursday morning, less than 24 hours turnaround time! If they could be this efficient with everything we would be complaining far less.

Same here - couldn't believe it!

rainbowtrout

Delphi91 wrote: »

Same here - couldn't believe it!

Although the cynic in me reckons someone in the TC is being paid an extortionate amount of money to sit at a computer pressing F5 all day and the minute some money comes in they print off the card and stick it in an envelope. Meanwhile the phone rings beside them all day long with lots of frustrated teachers on the other end. :pac:

kindalen

delphi can you please tell me what you mean by saying we legally have to stay on their books?
as far i'm aware this is not true.
thanks.

rainbowtrout

kindalen wrote: »

delphi can you please tell me what you mean by saying we legally have to stay on their books?
as far i'm aware this is not true.
thanks.

To be paid out of Oireachtas funds you must be a registered member of the Teaching Council. That's the general gist of it. Must find a link.

kindalen

thanks, but is this in law before 2013? a lot of talk about this, but no definite fact.

AJG

Not to drag the thread off topic but I was wondering has anyone actually heard of the Teaching Council holding anyone to account who was teaching in a school who wasn't qualified?

Long story short: Met a kid who I thought a few years ago who's a couple of years out of school. He told me his mum who's principal of a school hooked him up with an SNA job. 5 hours a day. No qualifications. Nothing. Not bad if you can get it. Thing is I've been out of work since May with no hope in site. What are the Teaching Council doing for me, you or anyone? Sweet FA? Or did I miss a memo or something? Or is the reality that the Principal is god and the rest of us can go swing?

Delphi91

rainbowtrout wrote: »

To be paid out of Oireachtas funds you must be a registered member of the Teaching Council. That's the general gist of it. Must find a link.

Yea, that's what I thought too. But there seems to be a contradiction on the Teaching Council website.

In the Registration section, it says:

Registration is a mark of professional recognition as a teacher and ensures that standards of entry to the profession are maintained.

In Ireland, only teachers who have met the registration requirements of the Teaching Council are permitted to teach in State recognised primary and post-primary schools* and have their salaries paid from state funds**.

The Minister for Education and Skills, in accordance with the authority conferred by section 24 of the Education Act 1998, directs that school authorities, as employers, ensure that teachers proposed for appointment to teaching posts for which salary grant is being sought must be

1. Registered with the Teaching Council in accordance with Section 31 of the Teaching Council Act, 2001

and
2. Have qualifications appropriate to the sector and suitable to the post for which s/he is proposed.

Yet, in the FAQs, in the section about Registration and Renewal, Q18 says:

18. What is the situation with regard to Section 30 of The Teaching Council Act, 2001 relating to mandatory registration?

Section 30 of The Teaching Council Act, 2001 requires that teachers receiving a State-funded salary must be registered. This section of the Act has not yet been brought into force by the Minister for Education and Skills. The commencement date for Section 30 of The Teaching Council Act, 2001, is a matter for the Minister. The Council has been advised that the legislative process for the enactment of Section 30 has commenced. Prior to the recent dissolution of the Dail, the legislative process was at an advanced stage. It remains to be seen whether the new administration continues with the previous legislative programme.

So, we have to be registered, but don't have to be registered??

kindalen

my reading of it is, if you are employed and not looking for promotion, you are not legally obliged to b a member. seeing as i get nothing from them, why oh why would i give them my money? could take years to come into law.

Delphi91

kindalen wrote: »

my reading of it is, if you are employed and not looking for promotion, you are not legally obliged to b a member. seeing as i get nothing from them, why oh why would i give them my money? could take years to come into law.

You mean promotion internally in the school? Or going for a more senior position in another school?

RTT

At least three teachers in my school didn't pay the €90 fee for the past few years, thereby saving at least €360 each and there were no consequences for them. I am seriously contemplating not paying it. I have no plans to go for promotion or leave my school in the near future. What would be the harm in re registering in 5 years time and having to go through the checks again? At least I'd have €450 in my pocket instead.

Delphi91

RTT wrote: »

At least three teachers in my school didn't pay the €90 fee for the past few years, thereby saving at least €360 each and there were no consequences for them. I am seriously contemplating not paying it. I have no plans to go for promotion or leave my school in the near future. What would be the harm in re registering in 5 years time and having to go through the checks again? At least I'd have €450 in my pocket instead.

The only thing that you would need to look into is the regulations that would pertain at the time to acceptance of your qualifications.

What I mean is that if you were amongst the cohort that were automatically admitted into the Teaching Council Register in 2006, you will have to conform to whatever conditions apply at the time of re-registration, many of which may not have been an issue originally. For example, I was talking to a colleague recently in another school and he was telling me that a representative from the TC had visited them, and this was one of the questions raised. VEC schools did not require that teachers had the HDE previously, but this may be about to change. So if you were admitted to the register in 2006 from a VEC school without a HDE, you may have to go and get one to be re-admitted if you let your registration lapse.

RTT

Well I'm teaching in a primary school so I don't really see how that can affect me to be honest but thanks for the info anyway. I wonder what they could do if everyone decided not to pay. I can understand maybe paying €90 once off to register but paying it every year is a bit of a joke and a bit steep in my opinion.

Jackolant48

mick kk wrote: »

folks,
we need to do something about this - 90 euro is simply not on - you can't pay What angers me is that it is a total waste of money - if I felt I got something in return for it I would say fair enough but you get a cheap plastic card to put in the recycling bin.
You can't pay every fortnight anymore either - time for us all to start ringing and emailing and maybe if enough people contact them, they might start to listen.


The Teaching Council
Block A
Maynooth Business Campus
Maynooth
Co. Kildare


Telephone
LoCall 1890 224 224
or
+353 1 6517900

Fax
+353 1 6517901


E-mail info@teachingcouncil.ie

Mick, I completely agree with you. When I got the letter last week demanding their 90 euros I was livid. No explanation or apology for no longer allowing you to pay off from salary either. It's as if we've all been given raises in salary instead of brutal cuts.

I immediately emailed Aine Lawlor (the CEO) and insisted she first explain to me what I got for my 90 smackers. Not surprisingly, I'm still awaiting her reply.

This kind of arrogant high-handedness from people who are in "authority" is what is wrong with this country, and nothing will change untill we all kick up enough of a fuss.

What if we ALL refused to pay? Imagine that.

RTT

Any reply yet from Aine Lawlor Jacko?

Jackolant48

Yes, I did. Quite a long justification of their existence which boiled down to "we exist because of the law and we don't benefit you personally, we benefit teachers collectively, so pay up or we'll stop your salary altogether."

They're not reducing the registration fee, and seem to expect us to be grateful they haven't actually put it up.

A lot of shoulders being shrugged, what can we do? It's out of our control...etc etc. We're also public servants, so we know how bad the cuts have been...blah blah... I'm going to ask whether the good people at the teaching council also have to pay an annual fee for the privilage of going to work.

And you can forget about paying off from salary - that's gone for good. Lump sum. Right now. Or else.

Next, I'm writing to all my newly elected representitives in the dail.
And I'd urge all teachers to do the same. The law is supposed to be there to serve the people, not the other way round. So if the majority of teachers demand the dissolution of the Teaching Council, what choice would the government have?

RTT

I agree. The teaching profession has seemed to manage fine without the teaching council before it came into existence so I reckon we don't need it.

E.T.

RTT wrote: »

I agree. The teaching profession has seemed to manage fine without the teaching council before it came into existence so I reckon we don't need it.

I don't agree with that RTT - I'm not a fan of the TC, they don't seem to do much for our €90 a year. I do think that their existence has made a big difference in schools. There are way fewer unqualified personnel in schools now.

There seemed to be a fad over the last ten years where people decided that they'd make a bit of money teaching - they came into schools, did sweet feck all subbing, and then informed everyone how easy teaching was. I think that situation has contributed to the lack of respect for teaching as a profession.

Again - I think the TC needs to be completely overhauled and we need value for our payments, but we do need a professional regististration body.

RTT

Maybe so E.T but I just can't justify paying €90 a year for nothing.

evolving_doors

RTT wrote: »

Maybe so E.T but I just can't justify paying €90 a year for nothing.

You do get a little laminated card to pull out of your wallet at the scene of a student brawl...'stand aside children i'm a fully qualified NQT teacher (with conditions)'

You also get Emails about something or other.

Trotter

Armelodie wrote: »

You do get a little laminated card to pull out of your wallet at the scene of a student brawl...'stand aside children i'm a fully qualified NQT teacher (with conditions)'

You also get Emails about something or other.

Can anyone tell me any serious reason for us to have a laminated teacher card? Any reason at all?

RTT

Trotter wrote: »

Can anyone tell me any serious reason for us to have a laminated teacher card? Any reason at all?

That laminated card gets teachers free entry into Copper Face Jacks!

Toto Wolfcastle

I found mine the other day when I was looking for something else. It's still in the envelope it came in which is a good thing because it seems pretty flimsy. I doubt it would withstand being taken out of my wallet and put back in too many times. (You know, for entry into Coppers. )

delta_bravo

RTT wrote: »

That laminated card gets teachers free entry into Copper Face Jacks!

If thats true I will be happy to pay . Anyone tried it out?