The Teaching Council

taisteal · 28-05-2010 10:16am #1

Is there anyone out there who actually agrees with this organisation? Could someone explain why on earth one should have to pay to be recognised for a qualification they have earned?

What a money making racket. Between registered letters in expensive envelopes, letters sent on expensive paper covered in blue ink and late 'administrative fees' of €10 on top of the €90 annual fee. What a joke!

Surely in this day and age there should be a database with qualified teachers listed instead of paper and postage etc.

TheDriver · 28-05-2010 10:33am

there is a database, its called the teaching council!
I don't like them, find them useless but if they did their job and got rid of underperforming teachers etc, then its a good idea. Also to ensure people in teaching have the right qualifications, then thats not a bad idea either. They are not questioning your qualifications but rather if its suitable for teaching....

drusk · 28-05-2010 3:09pm

TheDriver wrote: »

there is a database, its called the teaching council!
I don't like them, find them useless but if they did their job and got rid of underperforming teachers etc, then its a good idea. Also to ensure people in teaching have the right qualifications, then thats not a bad idea either. They are not questioning your qualifications but rather if its suitable for teaching....

How on earth do you propose they get rid of under-performing teachers? As long as permanency/CID exists, this will never happen.

The only function they are ABLE to serve is to ensure teachers are qualified. Once your qualification has been established and your name has been added to the database, the €90 annual fee becomes farcical.

It's jobs for the boys. A bureaucratic waste of time and money, plain and simple.

Miss Lockhart · 28-05-2010 4:38pm

Every other profession has a regulatory body so in theory I think the Teaching Council is a good idea. However, all my experiences with the Teaching Council tell me that they are incompetent and incapable of doing their job.

They have proved they are incapable of even deciding if people are suitably qualified. Firstly they don't seem able to consistenly apply their own regulations. Secondly, their regulations are often ridiculous, make no sense, and do not seem to be geared towards ensuring teachers are well qualified.

Regarding getting rid of teachers who are underperforming - this is very tricky but surely not impossible. Surely being permanent or CID can only be possible if you are fit to teach. If you are not fit to teach (for any reason), you should not be able to retain a permanent position. Other professionals can be removed from permanent positions if they are not fit to practice so I think this would be possible for teachers too. Now, how exactly they would determine if a teacher is competent or not is another matter.....

TheColl · 28-05-2010 8:36pm

they're taking over the responsibility for probation soon i've heard

mick kk · 29-05-2010 6:32pm

They are a disaster. They have over 60,000 teachers at all levels registered with them which means they get in a huge amount of money. If this organisation was funded by the taxpayer it would have been first to be "bord snipped".

I don't mind paying to register once but to have to pay it every year is ridiculous. Over a 40 year teaching career thats 3, 600 yo yos that you will give this organisation. They spent 100,000 euro this year to fund the costs for teachers who wish to take on further studies...thats the contributions of over 1,100 teachers! If a teacher or any professional wants to take on further studies then fine, but I do not want to pay for it. They celebrate this fact yet its my money and yours....not theirs!

They did one thing this year... a survey, the results of which were that people think teachers do a good job! Now in fairness, I didn't need to give them 90 euro to be told that society has a high regard for my work. I think doctors, nurses, hairdressers, strawberry pickers etc. do great work but do we need it confirmed in a survey which was ever only going to come up with one possible conclusion?

kob29 · 29-05-2010 10:46pm

Why did teachers take a massive paycut and still be charged the 90 euro from this shower for a crappy cert and your name on a register.
This needs to be taken on by the unions. Its a joke

spurious · 29-05-2010 11:22pm

They certainly need to address the wastage (all funded by our subs) of printing letters on expensive heavy blue paper, issuing everything in both Irish and English, still using paper documents in the main, etc..

I'd love to see what the cost was of sending registered letters to all those teachers who had not paid up. The An Post guy in my delivery office said he had loads of them and that's just one small area of Dublin.

mick kk · 30-05-2010 7:59am

unions won't say a thing bad about them...they are represented on the teaching council.

Teaching council fees are much lower in other countries. What kills me about them is that they don't do anything.....they have me registered for example, and as far as I'm concerned they can leave my name on the register until I tell them otherwise. I don't need a registration card...its fine. The amount of money they get to simply collect a list of names and keep that list of names updated is unrea.

I have a funny feeling their could be some failed CSPE teachers running it.

TheDriver · 30-05-2010 12:53pm

Just remember if you want to go for jobs, promotion etc, you must be registered!
Hopefully they will sort out the problems. Also its not 90 euro a year because the tax credit will reduce it to around 55 euro a year.

mrboswell · 31-05-2010 12:53pm

In theory great.

In reality a joke.

No point in wasting time talking about it.

amz5 · 31-05-2010 1:00pm

I think they're a bit of a joke (at my expense) but I think that it's particularly unfair that subs and teachers on career break have to pay the full E90. They won't benefit from getting any of it back in tax.

Delphi91 · 31-05-2010 2:38pm

drusk wrote: »

How on earth do you propose they get rid of under-performing teachers? As long as permanency/CID exists, this will never happen...

More than likely in the same way that the Law Society (or is it the Bar Council) and the Medical Council do - by removing ones right to practice ones profession.

At the moment, the Teaching Council are waiting for the Minister for Education to issue to commencement order to that portion of the Teaching Council Act (2001) which will put this process in motion. According to the annual report from the Teaching Council (2008/2009) they made contact with the Minister's office in March of last year and were told that the commencement order was "imminent"

(see pg 16 - http://www.teachingcouncil.ie/_fileupload/TC_Publications/Teaching_Council_Annual_Report_0809_ENG_24563733.pdf)

drusk · 31-05-2010 6:04pm

Delphi91 wrote: »

More than likely in the same way that the Law Society (or is it the Bar Council) and the Medical Council do - by removing ones right to practice ones profession.

Figuring out whether a lawyer or a doctor is incompetent is fairly straightforward. How do you figure out if a teacher is incompetent? Who determines this (kids, parents, inspectors, exam results), and on what basis (opinion)?

Teaching is a very gray area in terms of measuring performance. Not all, but a lot of it comes down to opinion. We can all have an opinion on what constitutes a good teacher and a bad teacher, but very often our opinions will vary. I'm sure most of us would have quietly disagreed with some of what our inspector's said when we were doing the dip.

I can't see the teaching council ever coming up with a magic formula that allows them to remove a person's right to teach. Theoretically, I agree that they seem wonderful. But in fairness/reality, they are a redundant, wasteful burden on our income.

maynooth_rules · 31-05-2010 8:51pm

If they did what they were set up to do, then everything would be grand. But during my first year as a qualified teacher(i was registered with the teaching council), I lost out on nearly all my substitution work to another guy who had only done one year in college and had no intention of becoming a teacher

. There should be no school in the country who should be allowed employ someone who is not on the teaching council database. God knows there are enough qualified teachers around now who cant get work

EdKeller · 31-05-2010 10:32pm

This is a summary of how the Teaching Council spent your money. This is directly from their financial summary documents.

We gave them...5.2 Million in fees in 2008

They have a staff of 41 who earned 1.5 Million in wages.
Thats 40K per staff member and as others have said, what were they doing for the year? An earlier comment suggested that they were doing a survey about peoples opinions of teachers. Actually it was carried out by independent market research company, iReach Market. Guess who paid for that.

We gave them 165, 000 to spend on IT. Lets see, thats...over 5 thousand per employee.

Under the title 'other administration costs': 600,000.

The list goes on, those shiny certs and registered 'Late Fine' mail isn't cheap you know!

Even after all this they still have 1.8 million left over! Which means...1.8/5.2...they should reduce the fee by at least a third. Right? Wrong. Apparently this money is needed just in case someone sues the council and to fill their Reserve fund.

They claim they want to help teachers understand what they do and why they are necessary. I've looked at the website and newsletters and I can't figure it out. And as for the fact that the money is tax deductable...after seeing what how the council spend the money, do you think someone struggling to pay a mortgage will say....oh its tax deductable! Here's fifty euro I can't afford for all that worthwhile work you do.

Delphi91 · 31-05-2010 10:32pm

drusk wrote: »

Figuring out whether a lawyer or a doctor is incompetent is fairly straightforward. How do you figure out if a teacher is incompetent? Who determines this (kids, parents, inspectors, exam results), and on what basis (opinion)?...

See pg 16 on the link that I posted in my previous post - it gives the grounds under which a person will be sanctioned. Seems pretty clear-cut to me.

dillo2k10 · 16-09-2010 1:56pm

Does any one know how long it takes for them to consider a subject for teaching? The business course as part of the arts degree in maynooth is still under consideration, I have to apply this year and I really wont to do it here as I also want to do geography.

Merch · 16-09-2010 2:09pm

mick kk wrote: »

They are a disaster. They have over 60,000 teachers at all levels registered with them which means they get in a huge amount of money. If this organisation was funded by the taxpayer it would have been first to be "bord snipped".

I don't mind paying to register once but to have to pay it every year is ridiculous. Over a 40 year teaching career thats 3, 600 yo yos that you will give this organisation. They spent 100,000 euro this year to fund the costs for teachers who wish to take on further studies...thats the contributions of over 1,100 teachers! If a teacher or any professional wants to take on further studies then fine, but I do not want to pay for it. They celebrate this fact yet its my money and yours....not theirs!

They did one thing this year... a survey, the results of which were that people think teachers do a good job! Now in fairness, I didn't need to give them 90 euro to be told that society has a high regard for my work. I think doctors, nurses, hairdressers, strawberry pickers etc. do great work but do we need it confirmed in a survey which was ever only going to come up with one possible conclusion?

As you say doctors, nurses have a similar arrangement regarding registering, lets say a nurse was struck off and unable to practice then surely it is reasonable to have a list updated annually. So how could there only be one possible conclusion? That nurse would justifiably not be able to re-register and hence be unable to practice, next step is probably having the power to enforce a similar situation with teachers but I think it would be more difficult to check.
Maybe they do need to be straightened out but overall seems like a good idea to me.

kob29 wrote: »

Why did teachers take a massive paycut and still be charged the 90 euro from this shower for a crappy cert and your name on a register.
This needs to be taken on by the unions. Its a joke

As has already been mentioned, after the tax credit it is around 50 euro
Plenty of people have taken bigger cuts and were on less to start with.
I hope you're not at the start of a teaching career with that outlook? lets get the unions??

TheFatMan · 16-09-2010 2:16pm

drusk wrote: »

Figuring out whether a lawyer or a doctor is incompetent is fairly straightforward. How do you figure out if a teacher is incompetent? Who determines this (kids, parents, inspectors, exam results), and on what basis (opinion)?

Teaching is a very gray area in terms of measuring performance. Not all, but a lot of it comes down to opinion. We can all have an opinion on what constitutes a good teacher and a bad teacher, but very often our opinions will vary. I'm sure most of us would have quietly disagreed with some of what our inspector's said when we were doing the dip.

I can't see the teaching council ever coming up with a magic formula that allows them to remove a person's right to teach. Theoretically, I agree that they seem wonderful. But in fairness/reality, they are a redundant, wasteful burden on our income.

**************************************************

All evaluation ultimately comes down to management opinion and evaluation against key performance indicators. Suggesting that this can't be done for teaching professions is absurd. Simply determine the criteria for what is expected of a teacher, train them well, keep their skills current, manage them correctly and manage them out of their position if they fail to perform to the set acceptable standard. You don't have a "right" to teach. You have a job as an educator and should perform to that role accordingly.

Teachers deserve better 1:1 management, to weed out the bad ones, elevate the good ones and to help those inbetween move toward being better at their job.

I'm a private sector manager married to a secondary school teacher and I see daily the management in a school is directed more toward daily operations than toward leadership and management of people.

Miss Lockhart · 16-09-2010 11:56pm

TheFatMan wrote: »

All evaluation ultimately comes down to management opinion and evaluation against key performance indicators. Suggesting that this can't be done for teaching professions is absurd. Simply determine the criteria for what is expected of a teacher, train them well, keep their skills current, manage them correctly and manage them out of their position if they fail to perform to the set acceptable standard.

But the whole point is that it is not simple to determine the criteria for what is expected of a teacher and it is even less simple to determine an "acceptable standard".

I totally agree that senior management in education could be greatly improved and that there are teachers out there who should not still be in a job. However, there is no way you can just gloss over the difficulties in finding criteria for successful or acceptable teaching standards.

TheFatMan wrote: »

You don't have a "right" to teach.

Did anyone claim they had?

Merch · 17-09-2010 6:50am

drusk wrote: »

Figuring out whether a lawyer or a doctor is incompetent is fairly straightforward. How do you figure out if a teacher is incompetent? Who determines this (kids, parents, inspectors, exam results), and on what basis (opinion)?

Teaching is a very gray area in terms of measuring performance. Not all, but a lot of it comes down to opinion. We can all have an opinion on what constitutes a good teacher and a bad teacher, but very often our opinions will vary. I'm sure most of us would have quietly disagreed with some of what our inspector's said when we were doing the dip.

I can't see the teaching council ever coming up with a magic formula that allows them to remove a person's right to teach. Theoretically, I agree that they seem wonderful. But in fairness/reality, they are a redundant, wasteful burden on our income.

Is this what you're looking for Miss?

TheFatMan · 17-09-2010 7:24am

Miss Lockhart wrote: »

But the whole point is that it is not simple to determine the criteria for what is expected of a teacher and it is even less simple to determine an "acceptable standard".

I totally agree that senior management in education could be greatly improved and that there are teachers out there who should not still be in a job. However, there is no way you can just gloss over the difficulties in finding criteria for successful or acceptable teaching standards.

Did anyone claim they had?

>>> Yes they did please review the thread!

I did not claim that it was a simple task. I pointed out that we simply must do it. Just because the task is complex and difficult should not stop us from trying. Teachers are too precious about their roles as educators being so complex and different from any other job that it defies normal management practices. The same practices can be applied to all other professions at all levels in other public and private sector professions, education is not an outlier.

Again I would re-iterate that teachers have more to gain personally and professionally from application of strong leadership and management. I think teacher's morale is most negatively impacted when they witness poor quality teaching practice going unchecked in a school.

evolving_doors · 17-09-2010 9:46pm

Merch wrote: »

As you say doctors, nurses have a similar arrangement regarding registering, lets say a nurse was struck off and unable to practice then surely it is reasonable to have a list updated annually. So how could there only be one possible conclusion? That nurse would justifiably not be able to re-register and hence be unable to practice.

Hmm bit of a daft way to do it
How bout just removing said persons name from list rather than have everyone re-register. Then it'd be up to the employer/payroll to have clearence for the employee before a contract or wages were issued (as it is with the department of ed anyhow!!).

If it looks like a quango, walks like a quango and quacks like a quango then...

I think the real issue is with the unions. What do they have to say about them eh? Well they have nominees who are members and that's all well and good in a chit chat kind of way, BUT WHAT DO THEY DOOOOOOOO

Rosita · 17-09-2010 10:06pm

TheFatMan wrote: »

[/B]
>>> Yes they did please review the thread!

I did not claim that it was a simple task. I pointed out that we simply must do it. Just because the task is complex and difficult should not stop us from trying. Teachers are too precious about their roles as educators being so complex and different from any other job that it defies normal management practices. The same practices can be applied to all other professions at all levels in other public and private sector professions, education is not an outlier.

Again I would re-iterate that teachers have more to gain personally and professionally from application of strong leadership and management. I think teacher's morale is most negatively impacted when they witness poor quality teaching practice going unchecked in a school.

But remarks such as 'education is not an outlier' and 'application of strong leadership and management' are terribly vague. I worked in the private sector before I went into teaching and was involved in performance reviews many times. Frankly I found the whole experience rather meaningless and a 'going through the motions' exercise much of the time despite the 'edge of the seat' rhetoric we tend to hear from those in the private sector. But leaving that aside I would have to say that teaching is an incomparably different environment to any other one I have known from a performance measurement perspective. Unless I am missing something really obvious that you might suggest in relation to performance measurement.

For example, the most superficially attractive measure i.e. results, certainly measure nothing about teachers. I am teaching an Honours Junior Cert class and they will inevitably do better than the class of the teachers who are teaching the pass classes. I would never accept that this makes me a better teacher than them. In fact I am almost certainly not a better teacher right now because I am relatively inexperienced. So just because something can be measured does not make it a meaningful measure.

So, in specific terms, how would you measure a teacher's performance? Please do not interpret the very asking of the question as an implication that I would oppose measurement of teachers' performance. Far from it. But if it can be done, as you suggest, in a manner that "can be applied to all other professions at all levels in other public and private sector professions" it would be good to have this method amplified in specific terms.

drusk · 18-09-2010 5:05pm

TheFatMan wrote: »

You don't have a "right" to teach.

My apologies. By "right" to teach, I meant "qualification" to teach. Removing someone's qualification to do something is major, and that's what I was getting at.

Apologies for the confusion.

Miss Lockhart · 23-09-2010 6:55pm

Merch wrote: »

Is this what you're looking for Miss?

I assume this is for my benefit, although I'm sure there are many "Misses" on the thread. Thank you for pointing it out.

TheFatMan wrote: »

>>> Yes they did please review the thread!

I'm not sure if this is an order or just an emphatic statment, but thank you for the advice. I have reviewed the thread and the post prior to yours helpfully pointed out the relevant comment. It was a simple question - easily answered.

TheFatMan wrote: »

Teachers are too precious about their roles as educators being so complex and different from any other job that it defies normal management practices. The same practices can be applied to all other professions at all levels in other public and private sector professions, education is not an outlier.

I have come to teaching from another profession where I worked in the private sector. I also worked for several years in other private companies. I am very familiar with private sector performance reviews. I am not "precious" about anything. As I already said, I think management in schools could be greatly improved and that there are definitley teachers that should not be teaching.

As yet I have not heard anyone, whether involved in or outside of education, put forward a realistic, workable, worthwhile model for performance reviews in primary or second level education.

TheFatMan wrote: »

Again I would re-iterate that teachers have more to gain personally and professionally from application of strong leadership and management. I think teacher's morale is most negatively impacted when they witness poor quality teaching practice going unchecked in a school.

As I already said, I would love to see a huge improvement of senior management in schools. Personally, my morale is most negatively impacted when people insist on tarring all teachers with the same brush and making sweeping generalisations about them as a group.

Fizzical · 25-09-2010 11:10pm

TheFatMan wrote: »

[/B]
Again I would re-iterate that teachers have more to gain personally and professionally from application of strong leadership and management. I think teacher's morale is most negatively impacted when they witness poor quality teaching practice going unchecked in a school.

Teachers do have a lot to gain from good leadership and management. Your qualifier of 'strong' leadership and management is, however, derogatory.

As a teacher of many years and students, my morale was most negatively impacted when I witnessed poor quality leadership and management going unchecked in my school, and for many years.

It nearly made my leave my profession.

But when I considered the professionalism of my colleagues, it convinced me that the teachers are what make the school and I stayed because I was part of their team.

As the years go by, though, and my colleagues retire, I can see that the management has managed to change the spirit of the place - by hiring many part-time teachers on low hours, running them ragged and treating them like hired help. These young, poorly paid teachers are excellent at what they do but they are now acting like hired help and not like professionals leading the development of the school and its ethos. They don't have a sense of ownership of the school, they just do what they're told.

It's very sad.

mick5344 · 23-02-2011 6:19pm

What happens if you don't pay the annual subscription. I received a letter today stating that they no longer provide a salary deduction service. The only option is a once off payment of €90 to these wasters.

Can someone tell what happens if you simply let your subscription lapse. I am in a permanent position and have no intentions of moving nor seeking promotion this year.

Delphi91 · 23-02-2011 6:59pm

There are a couple of issues here.

First of all, anyone who is in receipt of a salary as a teacher is legally obliged to be on the register.

Secondly, and you've mentioned this one, you will not be appointed to any teaching post if you have let your registration lapse. I am aware of a situation where a person was appointed Principal of a school, but it was discovered that their registration had lapsed. The post was withdrawn from them.

Thirdly, if you were one of the teachers who was in situ when the teaching council was set in motion and had yourself registered automatically, should you let your registration lapse, you will then have to go through the procedure of registration as if you were just entering the profession i.e. submit your transcripts, get Gardai clearance, etc. I believe the rules for acceptance of subjects for registration has changed recently.

Have a look at this page: http://www.teachingcouncil.ie/faqs/default.asp?NCID=622

mick kk · 23-02-2011 9:39pm

folks,
we need to do something about this - 90 euro is simply not on - you can't pay What angers me is that it is a total waste of money - if I felt I got something in return for it I would say fair enough but you get a cheap plastic card to put in the recycling bin.
You can't pay every fortnight anymore either - time for us all to start ringing and emailing and maybe if enough people contact them, they might start to listen.

The Teaching Council
Block A
Maynooth Business Campus
Maynooth
Co. Kildare

Telephone
LoCall 1890 224 224
or
+353 1 6517900

Fax
+353 1 6517901

E-mail info@teachingcouncil.ie

delta_bravo · 23-02-2011 9:46pm

Eh they dont care about your complaints.

As they said to us a month ago in a lecture: "We are not your friends, we are not here to help you. We're here to make sure you uphold the standards of the profession".

E.T. · 23-02-2011 10:17pm

delta_bravo wrote: »

Eh they dont care about your complaints.

As they said to us a month ago in a lecture: "We are not your friends, we are not here to help you. We're here to make sure you uphold the standards of the profession".

Which is ironic coming from the shower of incompetents that managed to register unqualified people as teachers.

Postgrad10 · 23-02-2011 10:58pm

Delta bravo

The teaching council man also said the council wasn't going to be our facebook friend . I was so hurt.:p

The ignorance , of course us teaching practice students spend all our time on facebook :mad:

He pretty much said himself, the teaching council was set up because we were the only country who didn't have a council .

spurious · 23-02-2011 11:39pm

We may not have had a council, but is there anything they do that was not already being done by some section of the Department (also in Irish, though probably not on as fancy páipéar)?

Postgrad10 · 23-02-2011 11:53pm

You are absolutely correct Spurious . Such a waste of money and resources. Could have been done with a bit more effort on behalf of the department of ed. I have to say from my experience so far and the way friends have been treated they don't show much respect to teachers.

sickofthiscrap · 25-02-2011 12:42am

I emailed Teaching council last year and got nowhere.Just sob sob story that they were enduring the same hardships as the rest of us.:(

Sent another enail Tues after recieving the renewal form.Got a reply from the same idiot who just sent me the email he had sent me last year!How lazy they are.:eek:

We need to contact them enmasse and the unions too!:mad:

Is it true re not paying for registration? A friend of mine has never joined. They used to send her letters but stopped doing it now

rainbowtrout · 25-02-2011 12:27pm

It's amazing that they take forever to get back to you when you call/email them with a query if at all, but when they are taking money off you they can be amazingly efficient.

I paid my subscription online on wednesday morning and had my card in the post on thursday morning, less than 24 hours turnaround time! If they could be this efficient with everything we would be complaining far less.

Delphi91 · 25-02-2011 2:07pm

rainbowtrout wrote: »

..I paid my subscription online on wednesday morning and had my card in the post on thursday morning, less than 24 hours turnaround time! If they could be this efficient with everything we would be complaining far less.

Same here - couldn't believe it!

rainbowtrout · 25-02-2011 2:36pm

Delphi91 wrote: »

Same here - couldn't believe it!

Although the cynic in me reckons someone in the TC is being paid an extortionate amount of money to sit at a computer pressing F5 all day and the minute some money comes in they print off the card and stick it in an envelope. Meanwhile the phone rings beside them all day long with lots of frustrated teachers on the other end. :pac:

kindalen · 26-02-2011 1:14pm

delphi can you please tell me what you mean by saying we legally have to stay on their books?
as far i'm aware this is not true.
thanks.

rainbowtrout · 26-02-2011 2:35pm

kindalen wrote: »

delphi can you please tell me what you mean by saying we legally have to stay on their books?
as far i'm aware this is not true.
thanks.

To be paid out of Oireachtas funds you must be a registered member of the Teaching Council. That's the general gist of it. Must find a link.

kindalen · 26-02-2011 3:49pm

thanks, but is this in law before 2013? a lot of talk about this, but no definite fact.

AJG · 27-02-2011 12:02am

Not to drag the thread off topic but I was wondering has anyone actually heard of the Teaching Council holding anyone to account who was teaching in a school who wasn't qualified?

Long story short: Met a kid who I thought a few years ago who's a couple of years out of school. He told me his mum who's principal of a school hooked him up with an SNA job. 5 hours a day. No qualifications. Nothing. Not bad if you can get it. Thing is I've been out of work since May with no hope in site. What are the Teaching Council doing for me, you or anyone? Sweet FA? Or did I miss a memo or something? Or is the reality that the Principal is god and the rest of us can go swing?

Delphi91 · 27-02-2011 2:25am

rainbowtrout wrote: »

To be paid out of Oireachtas funds you must be a registered member of the Teaching Council. That's the general gist of it. Must find a link.

Yea, that's what I thought too. But there seems to be a contradiction on the Teaching Council website.

In the Registration section, it says:

Registration is a mark of professional recognition as a teacher and ensures that standards of entry to the profession are maintained.

In Ireland, only teachers who have met the registration requirements of the Teaching Council are permitted to teach in State recognised primary and post-primary schools* and have their salaries paid from state funds**.

The Minister for Education and Skills, in accordance with the authority conferred by section 24 of the Education Act 1998, directs that school authorities, as employers, ensure that teachers proposed for appointment to teaching posts for which salary grant is being sought must be

1. Registered with the Teaching Council in accordance with Section 31 of the Teaching Council Act, 2001

and
2. Have qualifications appropriate to the sector and suitable to the post for which s/he is proposed.

Yet, in the FAQs, in the section about Registration and Renewal, Q18 says:

18. What is the situation with regard to Section 30 of The Teaching Council Act, 2001 relating to mandatory registration?

Section 30 of The Teaching Council Act, 2001 requires that teachers receiving a State-funded salary must be registered. This section of the Act has not yet been brought into force by the Minister for Education and Skills. The commencement date for Section 30 of The Teaching Council Act, 2001, is a matter for the Minister. The Council has been advised that the legislative process for the enactment of Section 30 has commenced. Prior to the recent dissolution of the Dail, the legislative process was at an advanced stage. It remains to be seen whether the new administration continues with the previous legislative programme.

So, we have to be registered, but don't have to be registered??

kindalen · 27-02-2011 8:30am

my reading of it is, if you are employed and not looking for promotion, you are not legally obliged to b a member. seeing as i get nothing from them, why oh why would i give them my money? could take years to come into law.

Delphi91 · 27-02-2011 2:13pm

kindalen wrote: »

my reading of it is, if you are employed and not looking for promotion, you are not legally obliged to b a member. seeing as i get nothing from them, why oh why would i give them my money? could take years to come into law.

You mean promotion internally in the school? Or going for a more senior position in another school?

RTT · 27-02-2011 2:33pm

At least three teachers in my school didn't pay the €90 fee for the past few years, thereby saving at least €360 each and there were no consequences for them. I am seriously contemplating not paying it. I have no plans to go for promotion or leave my school in the near future. What would be the harm in re registering in 5 years time and having to go through the checks again? At least I'd have €450 in my pocket instead.

Delphi91 · 27-02-2011 7:30pm

RTT wrote: »

At least three teachers in my school didn't pay the €90 fee for the past few years, thereby saving at least €360 each and there were no consequences for them. I am seriously contemplating not paying it. I have no plans to go for promotion or leave my school in the near future. What would be the harm in re registering in 5 years time and having to go through the checks again? At least I'd have €450 in my pocket instead.

The only thing that you would need to look into is the regulations that would pertain at the time to acceptance of your qualifications.

What I mean is that if you were amongst the cohort that were automatically admitted into the Teaching Council Register in 2006, you will have to conform to whatever conditions apply at the time of re-registration, many of which may not have been an issue originally. For example, I was talking to a colleague recently in another school and he was telling me that a representative from the TC had visited them, and this was one of the questions raised. VEC schools did not require that teachers had the HDE previously, but this may be about to change. So if you were admitted to the register in 2006 from a VEC school without a HDE, you may have to go and get one to be re-admitted if you let your registration lapse.

RTT · 27-02-2011 9:13pm

Well I'm teaching in a primary school so I don't really see how that can affect me to be honest but thanks for the info anyway. I wonder what they could do if everyone decided not to pay. I can understand maybe paying €90 once off to register but paying it every year is a bit of a joke and a bit steep in my opinion.

Jackolant48 · 01-03-2011 8:47pm

mick kk wrote: »

folks,
we need to do something about this - 90 euro is simply not on - you can't pay What angers me is that it is a total waste of money - if I felt I got something in return for it I would say fair enough but you get a cheap plastic card to put in the recycling bin.
You can't pay every fortnight anymore either - time for us all to start ringing and emailing and maybe if enough people contact them, they might start to listen.

The Teaching Council
Block A
Maynooth Business Campus
Maynooth
Co. Kildare

Telephone
LoCall 1890 224 224
or
+353 1 6517900

Fax
+353 1 6517901

E-mail info@teachingcouncil.ie

Mick, I completely agree with you. When I got the letter last week demanding their 90 euros I was livid. No explanation or apology for no longer allowing you to pay off from salary either. It's as if we've all been given raises in salary instead of brutal cuts.

I immediately emailed Aine Lawlor (the CEO) and insisted she first explain to me what I got for my 90 smackers. Not surprisingly, I'm still awaiting her reply.

This kind of arrogant high-handedness from people who are in "authority" is what is wrong with this country, and nothing will change untill we all kick up enough of a fuss.

What if we ALL refused to pay? Imagine that.

The Teaching Council

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