Editorial: Children the losers in teachers' revolt

The strike that will hit secondary schools tomorrow may seem like just another bout of disruption by the teachers' union. It is not. It is something of a revolt by members of the Post Primary Teachers' Association against the union leaders, who thought they had made a satisfactory settlement of the annual pay negotiations late last year.

To the dismay of PPTA negotiators and the Government, the settlement - a 3.5 per cent rise over two years - was roundly rejected in meetings of teachers during February. Not a few wondered whether they were being sacrificed to the cause of the Government's re-election.

The PPTA makes no secret of its sympathies with the Labour Party, reminds the party sometimes that its members work for it at election time, and the path from the executive to Labour seats in Parliament is well-trodden.

The union has particular reason to be grateful to the Labour Party this year. Since coming to power the Labour-led Government has largely enacted the main items on the PPTA wish-list. Tax-funded scholarships to private schools have been abolished, zoning of state schools restored, the Education Review Office seems to have been quietened and the union's old bogey, "bulk-funding" of school boards, has been abandoned.

Secondary education is returning to the way most teachers want it, with minimal competition between schools, less opportunity for highly regarded schools to select their pupils, an examination system that is less likely to produce stark "league tables" of their performance, a more muted and helpful inspectorate and, most important, a single national pay bargaining system that had been threatened by the prospect of negotiating with bulk-funded boards.

Little wonder that, as the national pay negotiations dragged on without a settlement after 10 months last year, the PPTA leadership became as anxious as the Government to reach an agreement before the beginning of election year. Union officials understand, possibly better than most of their members, that there is a price to pay for central bargaining arrangements that make life easier for union officials. The price is that pay is set by the lowest common denominator.

Many, probably most, teachers are worth more - a great deal more - but not all. Principals and boards always make their sympathies known in these disputes. They say their staff deserve better. Boards even paid their teachers for strike days when talks in the pay round broke down briefly in October. Principals know who their best and most hard-working staff are, and those they may have to pay a premium in order to keep.

Unions, though, operate on the fiction that every contribution is of equal value and even that difficulties of recruitment and retention in some specialties are grounds for a rise for all. They find it easier to bargain with the Ministry of Education which, one step removed from schools, lacks the knowledge to make flexible and discriminating deals.

This bargaining round should have been easier than most. All teachers of senior secondary classes are facing the introduction of a new examination system. The National Certificate of Educational Achievement will replace School Certificate this year, the Sixth Form Certificate next year and the Bursary exam the year after.

A large part of the testing for the national certificate must be designed and marked by the class teacher, who must also ensure the tests and results are not out of line with those in other schools. In addition, pupils will have more than one chance to make the grade.

It is easy to see why teachers contemplating the demands of the national certificate are particularly anxious for a handsome pay increase this time. And with so many education professionals in the Government, they probably calculate that their chances of success have never been better.

They have seized the initiative from their union leaders and their unrest will be a test of the Government's mettle. Both sides are reaping the results of poor arrangements. The pupils losing a day's education tomorrow face the real cost.