Motion no: 3
Congress asserts that nepotism is still a problem across the public sector in Northern Ireland but particularly in Education.
Congress believes that in too many schools, teachers and support staff are not appointed solely on merit but on a ‘who you know’ basis. Congress believes that as a consequence
that good teachers and support staff are not appointed to jobs while students are denied the best teachers and support staff.
Conference asserts that nepotism destroys trust in management, breaks staff morale and if not prevented leads to greater levels of adversarial management practices.
Conference is particularly concerned that most nepotism in Northern Ireland schools centres around the use of short-term contracts and the abuse of the fixed-term worker regulations.
Congress calls upon the Executive Council to campaign for:
The Department of Education to collect data on the extent of nepotism within grant- aided schools in Northern Ireland for both permanent and temporary positions.
Measures to prevent nepotism in any future review of teacher appointments including the deployment of temporary teachers.
The employing authorities to review all appointments (permanent or temporary) where a relative is appointed to ensure that no conflict of interest has occurred at any stage including in setting the criteria.
