‘Abject failure’ of minister in teacher shortage crisis
Foley has ‘no political will to tackle the problem’, rages union
A TEACHERS’ union has said that attempts to lure teachers back from Dubai have been an ‘abject failure’, with schools ‘barely able to cope’ with the recruitment and retention crisis.
As of yesterday, there were 99 secondary teaching posts being advertised on the educationposts.ie recruitment website, and 34 mainstream class teachers sought by schools across the country.
This is a fall on the 194 mainstream class teachers sought in August last year, and the 497 secondary school posts, but the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland said the crisis was still affecting schools on a day-to-day basis. Its general secretary, Kieran Christie, said: ‘Schools continue to be forced to reassign special education needs (SEN) teachers to mainstream classes. Almost a fifth of schools have been forced to remove a subject or subjects from the curriculum.’
He said the ASTI had learned that, contrary to what was previously understood, Minister for Education Norma Foley had not sought any funding from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to induce teachers back from countries such as the United Arab Emirates.
Currently, such teachers must recommence their careers in Ireland at the bottom of the pay scale, irrespective of their experience. ‘This position, in addition to the minister’s failure to address the fact that such teachers are normally obliged to return to parttime or fixed-term positions, often for years after their return, exacerbates the problem,’ the ASTI said. The union has called for funding to allow the teachers to obtain an incremental credit to recognise their years of work abroad, as happens when teachers return from working in EU schools.
In addition, the ASTI asked for the two-year Professional Master of Education course, to qualify as a post-primary teacher, to return to being a one-year postgraduate qualification. ‘We have been told that more than 30 separate measures have been implemented to seek to address the crisis. They obviously have not worked and have barely impacted a problem that continues to get worse,’ the union said. Mr Christie commented: ‘The refusal of the Minister for Education to seek the necessary funds to address the problems associated with incremental credit for some teachers returning to Irish schools is an abject failure.
‘Her determination to maintain the extraordinary casualisation of teachers’ employment status in their early years coupled with an excessive length of pre-teacher training for graduates demonstrates a minister with neither the political will nor wherewithal to properly tackle the problem.’
In total, there are 114 post-primary vacancies of all kinds across the country at the moment, including caretakers, SENs and secretaries. Of the 99 secondary school teaching posts, 24 teachers are needed in Dublin, 21 in Meath, six in Kildare, four in Cork, four in Galway and four in Limerick, reflecting the difficulty in recruiting teachers to areas in which it is very difficult or very expensive to find accommodation.
A Department of Education spokesman said it was a ‘priority area of action’ for the Government that students should have qualified, engaged teachers available to support them in their learning.
He said: ‘While schools in certain locations are experiencing challenges in both recruiting teachers and obtaining substitute teachers, the vast majority of sanctioned teacher positions are filled. The rate of resignation and retirement is very low by any standard and is consistent with previous years.’
He said that as part of the 2024 budgetary process, the department had examined the unions’ request for a recognition of private post-primary teaching service outside the EU towards the award of incremental credit. ‘It was not possible to secure funding to progress this request through the 2024 budgetary process,’ he said.
‘Priority area of action’