School leaders in Northern Ireland this morning delivered school census returns by hand to protest what they describe as “continuing gridlock” in an industrial dispute over pay.
Some 100 members of the NAHT Northern Ireland school leaders’ union handed over their completed censuses at the Department of Education in Bangor.
The censuses are usually completed electronically and submitted online. They include a wide range of information about schools, including pupils and staff numbers, data on pupils with special educational needs (SEN), and the number of pupils who receive free school meals.
However, hundreds of union members have instead printed off their completed documents and returned them by post or hand.
NAHT NI national secretary Graham Gault said the action formed part of the “action short of strikes” begun by the union last month.
Dr Gault said that five unions in Northern Ireland - in response to a lack of progress in settling the pay dispute - jointly “contend that the damage inflicted on our schools, our entire school staff and, ultimately, our children, is incalculable, and inconceivably continues unabated”.
He added: “For the past three years, we have witnessed all teachers and school leaders across every other jurisdiction in the UK and Ireland receiving well-deserved pay increases. In Northern Ireland, the teaching profession has been greatly overlooked, with the value of pay decreasing at an unprecedented rate.”
Dr Gault described the situation as “extremely damaging to the health and morale” of teachers, and also condemned “the shameful neglect of our essential support staff, without whom our schools simply cannot function”.
He said: “School leaders are seriously concerned about future recruitment and retention in Northern Ireland, especially when it is clear that the same jobs with significantly better pay are just a train, bus or boat journey away.”
In August, NAHT NI warned employing authorities and the Department of Education in Northern Ireland that its “unprecedented” industrial action would be escalated in the autumn.
NAHT NI president Liam McGuckin said today: “It is unprecedented that school leaders, who have held together an increasingly fragmented and broken system for so long, would take action such as today’s. We are normally the problem-solvers; the fixers who sacrificially fill in the gaps where other systems and services collapse.
“The fact that school leaders are escalating our industrial activities demonstrates both the extent of the problem and the seriousness of our intent.”
