Tipperary TUI member hits out at Education Minister over calculated grades rankings

A local member of the Teachers Union of Ireland has hit out at the Education Minister over the calculated grades rankings.

The Union says the Department has gone against their agreement that students would only be able to view their individual class ranking on request, and that this information is now being made available to all students.

Cahir teacher, Séamus Lahart is a member of the TUI’s National Executive.

Speaking on Tipp Today earlier, he said it could result in a student’s personal data being deduced by others:

“What purpose does knowing your class ranking serve? I mean, the Minister has not explained that to anybody.

“Knowing that I came sixth out of 28 in the class – what is the point? But it is going to create a difficulty for the weaker student.

“That ranking will be available to every student, whether they request it or not, on the portal. So, therefore, the possibility or the probability of putting a list together and deducing that Séamus Lahart or Fran Curry came 29th out of 30 in the class is very high.”

As well as this, Mr Lahart says this distrust could potentially pose problems with future negotiations:

“The problem is, we negotiate with the department on behalf of 20,000 members and we do so on the basis of good faith. Once we agree something, the Teachers Union of Ireland abides by it and we advise our members accordingly.

“Now on this basis, the Minister is directly contradicting what we agreed and what we’re saying we agreed to. So therefore, that has implications for future agreements.

“If you can’t trust the people that you’re agreeing with, then it calls into question whether you should go there at all.”