Teacher of the Year Gives Passionate Speech on Irish Education

Her speech begins at 1.30 mins in. Take a look…

This is just a segment of the speech:

“If you are wondering why non-permanent teachers aren’t screaming about this from the rooftops – the simple answer is because we are afraid.

Teachers aren’t popular in this country.

We are afraid to even say these things out loud because the government will try to use our complaints as an excuse to make things even worse for all teachers. We’re afraid that if we make ourselves visible we might lose our jobs. We’re afraid that people will dismiss us as whingers because of our summer holidays.

When people looked at me enviously when we finished up a few weeks ago I didn’t know what to say to them.
I didn’t tell them about the ball of anxiety in my stomach wondering if my contract would be renewed; wondering how many hours I’d be granted for next year; wondering if my family and I should just abandon Ireland and set up home somewhere else. I become like Hamlet: I know that “it is not nor it cannot come to good but break my heart for I must hold my tongue”.

Evelyn O’Connor set up her own website called LeavingCertEnglish.net as a resource for students. You can take a look at it here.