Because the Teaching Council elections were done online, results were out very quickly. There were roughly 7,500 teachers who voted in the primary school sector, roughly 25% turnout, which is a lot better than the last election but still worryingly low. However, from Anseo.net’s perspective, it was good to see both Séamus O’Connor and Gregor Kerr elected. Both of them took our Teaching Council interview and it was good to see their honesty. Personally, I was pleased to see that the only Leinster female candidate who publicly was opposed to Droichead also got elected.
There are now a good number of teachers elected to the Teaching Council who are opposed to Droichead in its current form. I wish them well in fulfilling their promise to stop this pilot and make the necessary changes that will save the teaching profession from itself. There are other challenges, of course. The Teaching Council is still not taken seriously as a body by the vast majority of teachers, and the very low turnout demonstrates how irrelevant they appear to be. I wish all the new candidates well and hope that a new era will emerge where the word “consultation” will actually have meaning.
