Tuffy sisters on opposite sides of teacher dispute
TD wants reform but ASTI sister does not
THE forthcoming teachers’ strike will split one political family down the middle.
The chief press officer of teachers’ union the ASTI is Gemma Tuffy, who will be helping to lead the charge against Government reforms of the Junior Cert.
Awkwardly, though, her sister is Joanna Tuffy, Labour TD and chairwoman of the Oireachtas Education Committee.
Joanna was a contender for the post of Education Minister when Ruairi Quinn stepped aside earlier in the year.
The post is now held by Jan O’Sullivan, another Labour TD, who is charged with pushing through the unpopular education reforms.
Joanna, 49, believes Ms O’Sullivan is right to reform the Junior Cert so there is less emphasis on an end-of-year exam. But she said yesterday that next month’s strike action would not cause family strife.
The Dublin Mid-West TD said: ‘I think the teachers are wrong, the minister really tried to meet them half way.
‘There’s more than teachers involved in this. The minister put on the table that 60% of the exam would be marked by the Exam Commission and 40% would be an end-of-year exam.
‘The teachers would have more autonomy to teach, to assess their own students and to track their progress,’ she added.
‘I think the teachers are overly conservative, they can’t have a stand-off. I was very disappointed when they decided to strike. They can’t just walk away from the table.
‘I have a job to do, Gemma has a job to do. She is a professional and it won’t cause any problems between us.’
Gemma also insisted that there would be no rifts at the family dinner table this Christmas, adding: ‘I’m a professional communicator, that’s what I do.’
Joanna, the mother of a young daughter, was initially wary of reforming the Junior Cert when the proposal was put forward by Mr Quinn. However, after study- ing the reasons why the Finnish education system is consistently ranked as one of the best in the world by the OECD, she is now convinced that it is time to reform the State exam.
She added: ‘We are trying to get away from rote learning and introduce problem-solving and critical thinking.’
Talks between teachers’ unions and the Department of Education broke down last week. Soon after, the country’s secondary
‘I have a job to do, Gemma has one too’
teachers announced they would hold a strike on December 2.
A second walk-out is planned for January. Teachers have repeatedly voiced concerns over the planned reforms.
A statement issued by the ASTI and the Teachers Union of Ireland stated: ‘The threat posed to educational standards by the introduction of internal assessment remains and the issue of capacity of schools to cope with the magnitude of such change was not assessed by the Department of Education.’