Teachers Aide talks on duties and employment

Executive, 26 May 2008

Report adopted

The Department of Education and Training (DET) have been in discussions with the PSA about the changes that have taken place in the role of teachers' aides over the years and how best to ensure this is reflected in their statements of duties and their remuneration. The parties have been meeting to try to resolve these issues.

The DET has finally put three draft statements of duties to the PSA. The aim is to either keep the employment classification but have a number of levels within the classification depending complexity of the disabilities of the student the staff are working with and the skills and experience required to deal with the issues. Alternately, there may be a base salary and staff working with students with more complex issues will receive an allowance. This has not yet been discussed in any depth.

The Association has put the draft statements of duties to a meeting the Schools Special Education Working Group. The group are reviewing them and will give feedback to the Schools Departmental Committee and the PSA executive. This feedback will then be forwarded to the DET to enable discussions to continue.

In addition, following the recent decision in the IRC in regard to the Long Term Temporary Teachers Aide (Special) that was previously reported to the Executive the DET have informed the PSA that they are reviewing their methods of employing staff in this classification. The Association expects the response within the next few weeks.