HUNDREDS OF NEWLY qualified teachers have no way of getting probated because of a new scheme called Droichead.

One teacher told TheJournal.ie that after four years of college she has been left with nowhere to go to get her Dip.

There’s going to be a huge amount of angry newly qualified teachers coming out in June with no way of getting probated.

“The Department of Education have introduced a new probation method, ditched the old version and failed to get the principals on board before introducing it across the board.”

However, the Department said 257 primary schools and 253 post primary schools have signed up to the Droichead process. In a statement the department said:

The INTO issued a directive to its members not to co-operate with or participate in Droichead from 1 July 2016.

The spokesperson for the Irish National Teachers Organisation INTO told TheJournal.ie that the union did issue a directive and that it’s more accurate to say the schools that the Department referred to are trained in the Droichead process and are in a position to implement it if the directive is lifted.

The old programme saw outside inspectors from the Department coming into schools and paying visits to teachers.

In the original Droichead plan it was proposed that principals should take the role of inspectors and sign off on teachers but the INTO said that wasn’t possible as many principals also taught and it wasn’t a realistic workload. That was why the INTO put a directive in place.

A revised version, Droichead 2, which doesn’t expect principals to carry out the work has been recently published by Teaching Council but the council is still awaiting clarification from the Department of Education about resources.

The INTO spokesperson added that the professional probation should be done away with and an induction programme that supports new teachers should be put in place instead.

“Modern teachers are spending  four years in college. The teachers have already had to perform for an inspector and probation doesn’t reflect the modern classroom.”

Read: Gap between teachers’ pay is affecting staff morale – union survey>