'There is no place' for cyber-bullying of teachers, Education Minister tells conference
In Minister Whites Wexford Foley In Education, Speaking At The Clayton Of Today Conference Norma Asti Hotel
Education Minister Norma Foley has said she is “deeply concerned” regarding reports that huge amounts of teachers have experienced cyber-bullying from both students and parents.
“There is no place for such behaviour against teachers who are simply doing their job,” Ms Foley said in an address to the annual convention of secondary teachers’ union the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI).
She said that the Government has “taken a significant step towards improving online safety” in setting up media regulator Coimisiún na Meán, whose new online safety code she said will “cover the scourge of cyberbullying”.
“Social media companies will have to comply with the code or face fines of up to €20m,” she said, adding that “the era of Big Tech companies policing themselves is over”.
That remark drew applause from the crowd, with the Minister’s speech overall greeted with cordiality, despite earlier suggestions during the debate of motions that she might face a more hostile reception, on the back of a teacher recruitment crisis and the introduction of measures unpopular within the profession such as the holding of State oral examinations at senior cycle level during the Easter holidays.
Earlier, ASTI president Geraldine O’Brien had moved to quell the mutters of dissent against the minister, telling delegates: “We respect the minister, and we afford her the respect she deserves.”
However, Ms O’Brien did not hold back in giving her own speech to those in attendance, noting her “dismay” that the minister had delivered the news that this year’s oral exams would once more be held at Easter via a “shock announcement” last December.
Ms O’Brien noted that teachers had “always understood” that the holding of oral exams at Easter had first transpired due to the public health emergency of the covid pandemic, adding “we have consistently advocated a return to the pre-pandemic status quo”.
She said that the ASTI had been given a “commitment” that research commissioned by the State Exams Commission would “form the basis” of any decision relating to the 2024 orals, and that “no education-based reason has been presented for this decision”, adding further that the Minister’s decision had been “extremely ill-judged".
She said her union had been “very disappointed” that no funding had been sought by the minister’s department to lure back Irish teachers based in Dubai or the United Arab Emirates, with said teachers’ service in those geographies currently not recognised in Ireland, meaning they begin at the bottom of the pay scale when returning here.