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The third annual Stephen Cullen Memorial Lecture to take place via Zoom featuring keynote speakers Hugh Dellar and Naoise Dolan with live music from Niamh Parsons.

On Tuesday, October 27th, 2020, at 7pm Irish time, the ELT Branch will present the third annual ‘Stephen Cullen Memorial Lecture’ via Zoom. We are delighted to announce some very special guests for this years event. One of ELT’s most renowned and respected teacher trainers and authors, Hugh Dellar, will be speaking and answering questions. He will be joined by former teacher turned novelist, Naoise Dolan. Her debut novel, ‘Exciting Times’ has been critically acclaimed on both sides of the Irish sea and we will hopefully get an insight into her inspiration for the main character’s struggles in the realms of the ELT industry.

Accompanying them ( …and us!) is internationally acclaimed Irish folk singer, Niamh Parsons, to add touches of particularly distinctive vocal class to this year’s proceedings. There will be several spot prizes to be won on the night as well.

Attendance is only possible by invitation which all members will receive this week, beginning October, 20th. Only those who RSVP will have access to this years event. Please contact us via email for enquiries. We hope you will join us for what promises to be and exciting and engaging evening as the world of ELT comes to terms with the turmoil of 2020 and beyond. Don’t forget to RSVP for the ZOOM link! We are very much looking forward to seeing and hearing from you on this very special occassion. Until then…

ELT Branch Return to Work Survey October 2020

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO COMPLETE THE RETURN TO WORK SURVEY.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1fwswDlbjHpcGGUIg4e8_NLo4QSX60qTFNtKl2jH1uXY/edit?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0&gxids=7628#responses
As COVID-19 cases rise rapidly and the government imposes a 5-Level plan for living with COVID-19, members are encouraged to complete this short survey about their own experience in their respective schools about returning to
‘face-to-face’ classes on campus. Please take 5 mins to complete the survey today. The data will be used to help protect teachers and their families in the coming weeks and months ahead. Thank you for your participation.

Branch members join inspirational Debenhams workers on the Dublin picket line.

Above: Day 156 on the picket line. Members of the ELT branch, Rachel Kavanagh (far left); Branch Chairman, Ciaran Gallagher; Branch Treasurer, John Whipple and Margaret Gillan (far right), visit striking Mandate members at the Debenhams picket line in Parnell Street, Dublin last week.

Last Thursday, Sept. 10th, members of the Unite ELT Branch and Committee visited the Debenhams store picket line to hand over a letter of support to our comrades. Having made a donation from our branch the previous week, we arranged to follow up by handing over a signed letter of solidarity and support to the inspirational strikers on the Parnell Street goods entrance to the store.

The strikers spirits were high and we were given a warm welcome by the striking Mandate members who at the time were approaching a remarkable 160 days on the picket lines at all Debenhams stores around Ireland.

The determined Debenhams staff are seeking 4 weeks (”2 +2″ ) pay per year worked in their redundancy settlement negotiations with liquidator KPMG. The total amount offered by KPMG on behalf of the retailer was a paltry €1 million, which is nowhere near the €13 million workers say is due to them in a previous collective agreement with management. Workers claim the company, which still has over 120 UK stores in operation and an estimated €95 million in cash reserves, can well afford to keep their word and stick to the collective agreement.

Some of the staff we met had been employed for over 20 years and were resolute in their intentions to maintain the blockade on the various Irish stores countrywide to prevent the company removing the stock, that they estimate to be worth at least €15 million in the Henry Street store alone.

It should be noted that if companies such as Debenhams can get away without having to honour their full redundancy obligations to staff in Ireland the statutory redundancy bill falls in the government’s lap. That means companies like Debenhams can rob their workers of their hard-earned entitlements after years and, in some cases, decades of loyal service and leave the Irish exchequer to pick up the tab. It’s an absolute scandal and you can only admire the courage and steely determination of the strikers to stand up to the bosses and KPMG. Just a couple of days prior to our visit, KPMG had actually withdrawn the derisory €1m. offer from the negotiating table.

The valiant Debenhams strikers have now spent a whopping 163 days on the picket lines which is the longest running strike/picket in the history of the Irish state.

Above: Handing over the letter of support.

Department of Education urges return to classroom lessons ‘without delay’and welcomes a ‘voluntary moratorium’ on recruitment of non- E.U. students.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/english-language-schools-should-suspend-recruitment-department-says-1.4341144

#elt #education #teachers #unions #unite #MEI #ELSU #PCN #ILSG

English Language Teacher survey findings from June 2020: COVID-19 Ireland

This second survey by Unite ELT finds 149 English Language Teachers in Ireland believe that living and teaching through the Covid-19 Pandemic has not just been stressful and costly and damaging. Uniquely government has excluded the entire teaching body stakeholder group from all talks to relieve or improve their conditions or discuss conditions for safe return.

Teachers indicate situation may have been less damaging if managers and owners had communicated with them more regularly or would begin to do so. For example, teachers were not informed by their schools of a publicly funded state-chaired Working Group on the English Language Education sector established just after the restrictions for the sector had been officially extended to cover the ELE sector. Nor were teachers informed of their rights while working from home, with exceptions in only a few cases across the 149 teachers responding. Most report having received fewer than 3 emails over the course of the entire pandemic.

In tandem government’s ongoing unilateral policy of exclusion from the ELE Sector Working Group discussions of people who work for wages the English Language Education (ELE) sector is seen as something that is against their interests.

Question 4. All further graphs available below.

This is noted and contextualised by a section of questions focusing on the main areas where ELT workers have traditionally faced precarity and declining conditions for over three decades: personal finance due to low wages and variable hours, accommodation in high cost rented accommodation, and mental health issues stemming from the above and continuous stories of bullying through control of hours, and the absence of regulation and oversight for standards of employment or quality etc.

Added to these areas, was a question about physical health. As workers COVID Ireland this question is more necessary because workers in Irish ELE, just as in other sectors, are faced with a de facto imposition further precarity by government choices to priortise or, in the case of the ELE sector, to exclusively engage in owner-focussed policies, talks, and practice. These exclusionary choices are at the expense of working precarious teachers and predicated on the exclusion of all employees and working people in the sector, unionised or otherwise.

There is also an extensive section detailing ELE operators transition to and practice of operating online teaching with government consent and mandate.

These findings may be a valuable resource for students and student-side stakeholders who are seeking evidence or looking for a view from inside the online classrooms giving vital context for the relative inaction of Irish quality bodies and government departmental policies.

These policies and procedures allowed for-profit schools a free hand with the setting, measurement, recording and enforcement of standards regarding level of student service, refund policies and quality provision.

This may be especially important to stakeholders who are excluded because of the absence of public records of the exclusionary state-chaired ELE Working Group’s decisions regarding the English Language Education sector in Ireland at the time this article and this report are released.

Helpfully, many individual incidents and reports noted in Unite ELT’s first survey (conducted April and May 2020) are given evidence here. These concur with findings from Irish Council for International Students and English Language Students’ Union of Ireland reported in The Irish Times and Dublin Inquirer.

It is recommended that the government’s ELE sector Working Group include teacher representatives as soon as possible.

BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY

Unite ELT Branch commissioned this second survey in May 2020 at the height of the first wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Ireland. 

The survey was open for approximately one month 2/6/2020-3/7/2020. It was emailed to all Unite ELT members and publicised on various ELT channels. Participants were encouraged to share the survey with members and non-members alike to get the largest available sample.

The questions were designed after studying the results of an extensive preliminary qualitative survey. The report of that survey is available on the Unite ELT website here. [https://eltunite.com/2020/06/18/qualitative-survey-of-elts-in-ireland-during-covid-19-pandemic-april-may-2020/]

The results of that survey indicated three areas for further research. Questions for all respondents focussed on four themes: 

  1. Stakeholder Status; 
  2. Communications during COVID-19; 
  3. Precarity. 
  4. Teaching online

In total there were 149 valid responses out of 153 responses. Approximately 78 participants accessed a Teaching Online section which was written with the input of a large number of members. These questions were accessible through a branching structure which revealed an extensive set of questions on their experience of Teaching Online.

Below is are the graphs representing the information in the responses to the survey.

For further comment or analysis see the full report.

covid-elt-in-ireland-survey-2_-quantitative-june-2020Download

SECTION 1 SUMMARY: STAKEHOLDER STATUS

Forms response chart. Question title: I regard myself as a stakeholder in my school.. Number of responses: 149 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: I am aware that government established a COVID-19 Working Group for the English Language Education (ELE) sector.. Number of responses: 149 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: I am aware that English Language Teachers are not represented at this Working Group.. Number of responses: 149 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: I believe it would be in my professional interests to have representation at this working group. Number of responses: 149 responses.

SECTION 2 SUMMARY: COMMUNICATIONS THROUGH THE COVID-19 SITUATIONForms response chart. Question title: I have received official and formal correspondence from my employer since the beginning of the COVID-19 restrictions regarding my school closure (i.e. email, not social media). Number of responses: 149 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: I have received regular updates from my school on what is officially happening at each Phase of the COVID restrictions and how this affects my school.. Number of responses: 149 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: I have received an official, provisional re-opening date from my school after the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.. Number of responses: 149 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: Information and updates I have received on my school and the ELT sector during the COVID-19 restrictions have been largely through social media. . Number of responses: 149 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: I am in regular contact with teachers I was working with since the COVID-19 restrictions closed my school (i.e. once per week).. Number of responses: 149 responses.

SECTION 3 SUMMARY: PRECARITYForms response chart. Question title: I am more concerned about my financial security now than I was before the COVID-19 restrictions.. Number of responses: 149 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: I am more concerned about my accommodation situation now than I was before the COVID-19 restrictions.. Number of responses: 149 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: I am more concerned about my physical well-being now than I was before the COVID-19 restrictions.. Number of responses: 149 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: I am more concerned about my mental well-being now than I was before the COVID-19 restrictions.. Number of responses: 149 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: I am more concerned about my future as an ELT teacher now than I was before the COVID-19 restrictions.. Number of responses: 149 responses.

SECTION 4 SUMMARY: TEACHING ONLINE

Forms response chart. Question title: Have you taught online for your school at all during the pandemic?. Number of responses: 149 responses.

TEACHING ONLINE: TRAINING

Forms response chart. Question title: 1. Did your school provide you with any training in using its online platform or applications? . Number of responses: 75 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: 2. How much training was provided?. Number of responses: 75 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: 3. How much have you been paid for training to teach online thus far?. Number of responses: 74 responses.

TEACHING ONLINE: PLANNING

Forms response chart. Question title: 4. On average how much time do you spend planning each core online class?. Number of responses: 74 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: 5. Are you paid to plan your online classes?. Number of responses: 74 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: 6. Has your school made use of an app/automated content delivery system to cover portions of the online lessons?. Number of responses: 75 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: 6. If there is an app, how appropriate is the app to each level you teach?. Number of responses: 60 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: 7. Do you have to create material for any of the following?. Number of responses: 72 responses.

TEACHING ONLINE: ATTENDANCE

Forms response chart. Question title: 8. What is the largest number of students that has been assigned to any of your online classes? (If above these ranges use 'Other' to give the largest number.). Number of responses: 75 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: 9. Have your class sizes generally increased over 15 since moving online? . Number of responses: 73 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: 10. Has student use of third party applications (videos, tutorials, etc) been used to count towards classroom attendance time in your classes? . Number of responses: 75 responses.

TEACHING ONLINE: RESOURCES

Forms response chart. Question title: 13. Do you have to upload sections/pages from copyrighted published materials to the school’s or a 3rd party online platform? . Number of responses: 74 responses.

TEACHING ONLINE: LESSONS

Forms response chart. Question title: 14. Which levels do you think are best served by online teaching?. Number of responses: 69 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: 15. Which skill is the most difficult to teach online?. Number of responses: 69 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: 16. Have you been paid for creating and/or correcting online tests?. Number of responses: 76 responses.

TEACHING ONLINE: COMMUNICATIONS

Forms response chart. Question title: 17. Did your school provide a document outlining your employment rights while working from home? . Number of responses: 75 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: 18. Has your school made an acknowledgement of any of the following student issues. Number of responses: 72 responses.

Forms response chart. Question title: 19. Which of the following methods do you use to engage with students out of class time? . Number of responses: 74 responses.

TEACHING ONLINE: HOURS AND INCOME

Forms response chart. Question title: Taken individually, and in comparison to your experience of work in face-to-face schools before the restrictions, how have the following changed:. Number of responses: .

UPE Malta begins strike action against hostile employer Club Class.

Recognition Granted to ETI Teachers - Union of Professional Educators
Above: Club Class owner Joe Aquilina has already apologised for derogatory comments he made about UPE members on the picket line outside his school in Malta. For more go to http://www.upevow.com

Unite ELT Branch supports the strike action UPE (Union of Professional Educators) Malta are currently undertaking in protest at their hostile employer Club Class. Communications with Club Class broke down during the pandemic after UPE made numerous attempts to engage with management only to be ignored time and again in recent weeks. The strike began on Monday July, 6th and will continue indefinitely. The strike has garnered much media attention in Malta already and we would encourage our members to show their support by engaging with the strikers on social media and sending further messages of support over the coming days and weeks. Identical to the Irish government’s Covid-19 Working Group for ELE, the Maltese government’s ‘think tank’ for the English language sector has excluded workers representatives and unions from participating or contributing in the most undemocratic and ignorant way. Our branch, along with the TEFL Workers Union in London, has sent donations to the workers this week in solidarity with our colleagues and will continue to show support for the duration of their strike action. Feel free to click on the links below for further details.

UPE Website and Facebook:

http://www.upevow.com/category/news/

https://www.facebook.com/upevow

https://bit.ly/2Z3WWc7

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