23rd April 2019
Teachers condemn the ever-increasing list of initiatives in schools.
At the INTO Congress in Galway today, teachers said that the ever-expanding list of initiatives and curricular changes being introduced in schools is having a detrimental effect on the mental health and wellbeing of teaching staff.
Speaking on the motion, Paul Moroney of Mallow branch, said that “Teaching and learning is being pushed into the background, replaced by box ticking, reports, policies and mounds of paperwork.” He spoke of the “reactionary approach” of the Department of Education and Skills and said that teachers and principals are “forced to implement initiative after initiative in an ongoing quest for schools to sort out all of society’s ills.”
The union called for a reduction in the number of initiatives being introduced and the publication of an independent study into teacher workload.