A real class act as retired teachers feted in Clonakilty

A real class act as retired teachers feted in

A TOTAL of 20 secondary teachers, all of whom retired from service over the last few years, were feted for their contribution to the education of young people in West Cork at a dinner held recently in the Fernhill House Hotel in Clonakilty.

Present to mark the occasion were well-wishers, many of whom were serving colleagues and fellow members of the Carbery branch of the ASTI, the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland.

Event organisers from the Carbery branch, chairperson Gloria Helen and secretary Dermot Brennan were joined by members of the ASTI head office staff who had travelled from Dublin for the occasion.

Noting that, together, the 20 retirees would have given over 700 years of service to education in West Cork, the president of the Retired Secondary Teachers’ Association (RSTA), Susie Hall, thanked them for what she said was ‘their wonderful contribution to education in West Cork.’

Reminding them that, as serving teachers, they had needed the ASTI to represent them during the course of their careers, Ms Hall welcomed them to keep alive their links with education by becoming members of the RSTA.

The battle facing all retired teachers, Ms. Hall said, ‘is to defend their pensions, most especially the hard-won parity that currntly exists between the pensions of retired teachers and the salaries of their working colleagues.’