The Department of Education has brokered a deal with the State School Teachers' Union this week which both parties claim as a breakthrough in solving the chronic teacher shortage in Government schools.

Under the new agreement, which will be implemented as an emergency measure before the end of the current term, level three classroom teachers in government schools will teach larger classes than their less-well paid colleagues.

The re-assignment of students to these teachers in classes of 40 or more will more than accommodate the current shortfall in staffing in most schools.

"Level three classroom teachers are currently under-utilised," said newly appointed Director-General of Education Sharryn O'Neill. "In the past it has been assumed that the best teachers in our system want more administration time, and to act as mentors for their inferior colleagues, but we have known for a long time that they most desperately want to remain in the classroom as much as possible," she said.

She claimed that the new initiative allows teachers to fulfil their professional ambitions, as well as creating more equity for students.

"We think that this is a much fairer way to use the superior skills of our best teachers, and to more evenly distribute quality teaching to students," she said. "For the past few years we have had the situation where some students have had an unfair advantage - having a superior (level 3) teacher in relation to their peers, but within the same class sizes. Now all students will have either have high quality teaching in an expanded class situation or, in the case of those students assigned with our ordinary class teachers, the 'standard' class size.

State School Teachers' Union president Mike Keely was similarly upbeat about the advantages of the new arrangement. "What you must remember is that these are not just ordinary teachers, they are super-teachers," he said. "Students in these classes of 40 or more will be getting access to a level of education far superior to the their peers who are being taught by ordinary teachers. It's a question of equity."

"We don't believe that level three teachers will object to this arrangement being put into place - we know that their main passion is to reach as many students as they can with their extraordinary classroom management and instructional abilities. It's a win-win situation." he said.

Neither the Union nor the Department anticipated a situation where teachers judged 'inferior' would be given smaller classes than average.

An Education Department spokesman refused to disclose whether a number of level three classroom teacher applications had been withdrawn by candidates this week in response to the new agreement being leaked. A source had suggested, however, that some level three classroom teachers had contacted the Department to ask whether their status could be revoked or surrendered.

Believe it or not, a fair few folks swallowed that 'hook, line and sinker' when it was posted on the PLATO Forum.