The education division recently hosted its Easter Seminar, marking a significant step towards the union's biennial national conference scheduled for May this year.

Held on Thursday 4th April in Dublin, the seminar served as an invaluable platform for educators and stakeholders to engage in a meaningful exchange around issues shaping the educational landscape.

The event kicked off with presentations from two guest speakers. Laura Coleman, an access officer at Munster Technological University looked at how education improved life chances and shared her thoughts on fostering inclusivity.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin TD and Labour Party spokesperson on education and justice, reached into his own past as a teacher and principal in St. Laurence O'Toole's Girls' Primary School in the Dublin Docklands to speak passionately about child centred education. He stressed a need to move to a more open, inclusive, and cohesive education environment for staff, students and society overall.

In the afternoon delegates received reports on the various industrial relations issues affecting each of the branches within the division. There was a discussion on the motions that had passed at recent AGMs but were deemed to be appropriate for referral to the education division, as they only affected that area of the union.

This provided an opportunity for the executive to agree whether the motions should be adopted as policy. This will allow the divisional executive, in conjunction with union staff, to put in place a plan to deliver on the motions that were adopted.
 
There was a further discussion on the potential options available to branches within the division regarding how to effectively make use of the local bargaining provisions of the recently accepted Public Service Agreement. In what was a productive day, the seminar laid a solid foundation for the direction of the division for the months ahead.

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