New measures to deal with under-performing teachers have been tabled by the Department of Education.
In a sign of its growing impatience with the problem, the department wants school management to play a more active role in dealing with under-performing teachers at local level instead of passing the issue on to the department's inspectorate.
The department's initiative comes amid growing concern from parent groups and within the department itself about under-performing teachers.
Only a handful of the 50,000 teachers in the State are dismissed every year for incompetence.
In many cases, the problem is allowed to continue or the teacher secures an early retirement deal.
The department tabled its new proposals at a meeting with teacher unions and school managers last week.
The department has no official figures on the number of teachers sacked every year. The latest figures for 2005 show that 94 teachers with less than 15 years' experience left their posts because they were "consistently experiencing professional difficulties in their teaching duties".
Another 64 teachers (aged 55 or over) left - on an early retirement package - because, according to the department, their departure provides an "opportunity to enhance the education service provided by the school by facilitating change such as the introduction of new skills and curriculum review".
The department wants the eight-member board of management - made up of parent, teacher, patron and community representatives - to take a much more active role in dealing with teachers who are under-performing.
It also wants the boards to play a more active role in dealing with complaints about teachers.
Sources say the most likely compromise deal will have two main elements: boards of management will take a greater role in discipline and other issues involving teacher performance, but department inspectors will still decide whether teachers should remain in the classroom.
Privately, teacher unions admit that more needs to be done to address the issue, which is now being addressed in the context of the "Towards 2016" pay agreement. But the unions hope dismissal will only be a last resort after other procedures, such as retraining or assistance with classroom management, are exhausted.
The new Teaching Council, which sets and monitors standards in the profession, is also likely to play a greater role on the issue of teacher under-performance. The council recently published draft codes of professional conduct for teachers.
