A TEACHER who had to drive 15 hours a week to and from work in Donegal has backed calls for the establishment of a national redeployment scheme.
Monaghan-born teacher Susanna Earley has been teaching since 2008. Unable to secure guaranteed teaching hours, the mum-of-three was left with no other option than to commute to and from Donegal.
She made an impassioned plea at the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) Congress in Cork last week for a motion calling for the setting up of a national redeployment scheme to be supported. The scheme would see teachers allocated to posts closer to their home address, balancing the needs of schools, and the well-being of teachers.
A survey of TUI members in the post-primary sector has shown significant support for a voluntary redeployment scheme being made available to teachers.
The online survey of 1,715 members was carried out in January and February, with 90 per cent of respondents working in the post-primary sector and 10 per cent in Further and Adult Education. Members strongly indicated that any such scheme should include a guarantee of continued job permanency.
Speaking to the Donegal News, Ms Earley said the current absence of a national deployment scheme has had a detrimental impact on her life.
“At one stage I was spending three times as long in the car Monday to Friday compared with the one hour I got to spend with my six-year-old boy with the daily return journey to and from work just about allowing me to get him to créche and then to put him to bed in the evening. I would be taking my child out of bed at 7.30am and handing him over to the créche fifteen minutes later, not dressed. The créche would look after him and I was very lucky that it stayed open until 6pm. But we had no valued time together apart from one hour. That is not parenting.”
Ms Earley said the current system is bringing so much frustration.
A music teacher with fifteen years experience, she told of how she had initially been living in Donegal but returned to her native hometown when she married.
“My job as a music teacher doesn’t only involve what happens in the classroom but many outside things such as parent teacher meetings, choir participation, doing corrections and so much more. This is all unpaid and very much goes unrecognised.”
A pilot scheme seemed to provide Ms Earley with a glimmer of hope, but she said she was soon left deflated when she discovered she had to wait for her county’s turn to come up. But there was further dismay when it did, as she was not considered to be qualified for the only music teacher’s position to come up because she did not have the additional subject listed in the job specification.
“Since when did a pilot run for 15 years?”, she said.
With a system to allow her to transfer absent, Ms Earley was left with no alternative other than to apply for jobs that might get her closer to home but found that having had three periods of maternity leave, one of which was during the Covid-19 pandemic, she was told she did not have enough experience.
Ms Earley said it “doesn’t make sense” not to have a redeployment scheme, particularly given the current emphasis on sustainability, climate and the energy crisis.
She said such a scheme brings a more work-life balance and benefits pupils.
“Rural communities are losing out as many members have had to abandon life in the country because they can’t carry on driving.”
Despite having filled in to teach Irish on numerous occasions, Ms Earley said the fact she was registered for just one subject was a disadvantage.
She has now returned to college to add a few subjects to her registration.
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