Vol 28 No.6 - May 2006 - TUI

www.tui.ieCONGRESS 2006by January 2005 (Section 20.7). However,it also qualifies the requirement in that itrequires the installation of an appropriatesystem of performance management.It is our position that we already have andhave always had an appropriate systemof performance management using theprofessional inspectorate. This is not theDepartments view. They want performanceassessment by superiors.There has been no attempt to introduceperformance management of professionalgrades in hospitals at individual level. I believethat doctors like teachers would regard it asdeprofessionalising and the authorities arereluctant to take them on.There is a concern that the Departmentwishes to change the governance of schoolsfrom the collegiate to the industrial/managerial model. Under such a model,the principal teacher would be replacedover time with a manager who would havea role in performance managing teachers,promotions, hiring and firing and determininga portion of pay based on performance.Because such a development would excitestrong opposition if implemented suddenly,it would be “rolled out” incrementally overa number of years in line with current“change management” strategies.The principal would, of course, be assessedin turn by his/her superior the CEO.CollegialityTeachers are the most accountable of allprofessionals. We are subject to individualinspection, subject inspection and wholeschool evaluation.In accordance with our status as professionals,these processes are carried out by aprofessional inspectorate. We also havesubject inspection.A teaching council has now been set up underwhich a fitness to practice committee canprocess complaints against teachers. Theseprocedures are in accord with the ethosof collegiality under which all the teachersas a collegium take responsibility for theeducation of students.In institutes of technology we have coursereviews, department reviews, school reviewsand external peer review as part of arigorous quality assurance system.Just as the diagnosis and treatment of patientsis the most important activity in a hospital,the teaching of students is the most importantactivity in a school. Any policy which deemsadministrative duties to be superior toteaching duties is destructive of the collegialethos and the professional status of teachers.Performance management of professionalsby administrators (so-called superiors) istantamount to reduction of teaching from aprofession to a job. There is ample eminentopinion in support of the view that collegialityis central to a successful education system. 3The policy of the Department of Education,if implemented, will seriously damage theIrish education system and the pay andconditions of our members in the process.References1Roche, Professor William, 1998“Working together for excellence in thePublic Service” Paper 2, IPC/NPCConference, March 5, 1998(cited in ICTU submission toBenchmarking Body, 2000. ICTU)2Fitzpatrick Associates, 1999Review of public Service pay Determination(Report to Department of Finance and ofthe Taoiseach) August 19993Leadership and Followership as a RelationalProcess – Russell 31... Murgatroyd, S.and Gray, HL (1984) ‘Leadership andthe Effective School”, in P. Harling (ed.)New Directions in Educational Leadership.London: Falmer.TUI NEWS5