The Minister for Education, Dr Michael Woods, has said he is confident that the benchmarking process will bring pay and conditions for teachers in line with other graduate professions.
Speaking at the Teachers’ Union of Ireland conference in Cork, Dr Woods said the benchmarking body is in the process of completing its work and will publish its report by June 30th.
The Minister praised TUI members for their participation in and co-operation with the process.
He said: "I wish to acknowledge the responsible way in which the TUI has used the agreed processes of the conciliation and arbitration scheme to deal with difficulties."
Yesterday TUI president Mr John MacGabhann warned the Government that if the benchmarking process proved a disappointment the union would take "decisive" industrial action until a decent pay award was conceded.
Minister Woods reiterated the Government’s commitment that at least 25 per cent of any increase from the benchmarking body will be applied retrospectively to the 1st December last.
On the issue teacher allocation Dr Woods said he was introducing a new scheme to apply an improved pupil teacher ratio of 16:1 for some 100 secondary schools. An independent appeals forum will also be set up to deal with applications from schools authorities for additional teacher allocations.
In his speech Minister Woods said: "We continue to have a significant level of non-school completion."
He said under a new scheme schools with the greatest retention difficulties will be invited to come together with their main feeder primary schools and relevant local agencies to formulate and submit a school completion plan.
The Minster also said that the Task Force on the Physical Sciences, which was set to address the poor take up rates in science subjects, would launch its report in the next few weeks.
