October 16, 2015 at 5:00 pm
Transfer of INCOs
The MUT wrote to the Minister for Education and Employment after members who are currently in INCO grades informed the Union that for some unknown reason they were deployed to different school placements without any prior discussion or any seemingly valid reason. This has caused hardship for some members for various reasons including continuation of service. The MUT, while asking the Minister to look into these transfers with urgency and if possible revert the decision taken, stated that it cannot understand why persons who were functioning well were being given such a treatment to the detriment of themselves, schools and students.
In reply, the DG DES stated that the situation needed redressing with INCOs being deployed where they are needed most and distributed across schools with cases distributed across INCOs more equally. The DG stated that this was done according to normal procedures. Also, in light of the Quality Education for All report, the direction is that ultimately INCOs will be absorbed by schools so that they are present in schools to reach children more easily.
The MUT, in reply to this, stated that while it agreed with better planning and distribution of work load, the Union doesn’t understand why some INCOs were transferred. Continuity of cases is more important for children and if there is in some instances an INCO who is not functioning effectively, action should have been taken on that particular instance rather than moving everyone around. With regards to the issue of INCOs being absorbed in schools, the Union confirmed that it is willing to discuss.
