Don Thornhill's report on teaching & competitiveness

Dionysus

Did anybody hear Don Thornhill of the National Competitiveness Council talking on Morning Ireland this morning (starts at 7.54am)?

Listen back here (available after 9am sometime).

I only caught part of it but it seems he's proposing shorter holidays claiming that the evidence states it's better for students. That was enough for me; the holidays are part of the quality of life that attracted me into teaching and into accepting much lower pay than other professionals with whom I went to college.
If the government implements his recommendations regarding the holidays, how is that going to pan out: will teachers be paid extra or be expected to work the extra time for nothing?

Dr Thornhill's report is due out very shortly and if this is a taste of it we are in for interesting times.

mrboswell

Dionysus wrote: »

If the government implements his recommendations regarding the holidays, how is that going to pan out: will teachers be paid extra or be expected to work the extra time for nothing?

Dr Thornhill's report is due out very shortly and if this is a taste of it we are in for interesting times.

Are you joking? You don't really think that they will want to give us more money do you? I be down to paddypower putting a few quid on them expecting us to give up holidays.

Like you, there will be many who will not be willing to give up holidays. We are already back the last week in August. Its a long time since teachers had a 3 month holiday anyway. Cutting the pay is one thing but the conditions is another thing altogether.

I suspect there may be an appetite for strike if that comes about...

spurious

The 'holidays' are a cheap shot.
If anyone was serious about saving money they would be looking at the fact that almost all small towns in Ireland have at least three small second-level schools serving them, all offering the same or similar curricula.

implausible

I only heard bits of it, but did I hear him say something about the length of the school day too?

raytray

Yes he said school day is too long, especially for younger students, but the holidays are too long also. His recommendations will be ready in Nov/Dec.

dory

Not a hope teachers will get paid more for the extra hours! My guess is the holidays will eventually get reduced and pay will stay the same.

TheDriver

i must correct ye on the 3 months thing, we work the 167 days in secondary no matter when we start/finish. So we are working no more days than few years back except maybe croke park hours.
Shorter hols and shorter days would be a very long year and not good overall. What will the travel agents do though??

mrboswell

dory wrote: »

Not a hope teachers will get paid more for the extra hours! My guess is the holidays will eventually get reduced and pay will stay the same.

My guess is that won't be accepted. I can see a time when all teachers must remain in the school for the school day, but they can forget messing with the holidays.

Its a short but intense day, so the holidays are a necessity - mess with them at your peril...

implausible

The one positive I take from this bit of publicity is that there is a recognition of the intensity of the Irish secondary education system; it makes a change from only hearing whinging about the length of our holidays and only comparing that aspect to the situation in other countries.

rainbowtrout

TheDriver wrote: »

i must correct ye on the 3 months thing, we work the 167 days in secondary no matter when we start/finish. So we are working no more days than few years back except maybe croke park hours.
Shorter hols and shorter days would be a very long year and not good overall. What will the travel agents do though??

I'd echo that. We now have 2 full weeks holidays at Easter. I do remember a time when we didn't go back to school until 1st September but we only had a week and a half at Easter.