Mr. Colm Kelly:

As members know, the TUI represents teachers in community colleges and we are very cognisant of that title. The colleges our members work in, no less than the secondary schools, are communities in themselves. Part of the educational experience is the pastoral experience. Young teachers in many schools are the ones most in touch, although I probably would not be thanked by our more senior members for saying that. They are the teachers with whom students identify quite a lot. Our experience is there is a major annual turnover of young teachers as they seek employment elsewhere. A young teacher could be working in a school for a year, develop close relationships with the community, students and parents and the following year, for the sake of getting an extra hour, could move to an entirely different county looking for more work. The idea of casualised work does not lend itself to building a school community. It teaches our students and children how to engage with communities later in life. The young teacher turnover is probably the biggest problem. We have teachers who are hopping from school to school. The ASTI has made reference to seeking a panel for permanent posts as people gain experience across a number of different schools but as our younger teachers keep jumping from school to school, those school communities will stay in a state of flux. Instead of developing into a steady and secure community for our children, they will remain in that state of flux.