Teaching problems run so deep that graduates are turned off
■ The recent news that the Teaching Council is demanding “urgent action” to solve the current teacher supply and recruitment crisis is welcome (Irish Independent, February
8) but one could ask why this body was so silent when younger teachers’ salaries, pensions and working conditions were being slashed over the last decade, thus sowing the seeds of the current problem. In fairness, however, the council has highlighted issues such as “pay inequality, casualisation and pathways to qualifications” as major reasons for the current crisis.
The fact is that teaching is no longer considered a good career by graduates. Applications to second-level teacher courses dropped by 62pc between 2011 and 2017, and this trend continues in 2018. The reasons for this sharp decline are easy to understand.
The workload for our educators has risen dramatically over the last decade or so. It seems that every few months the Department of Education rolls out a new initiative, policy or plan for classroom teachers to implement without any thought as to how these will fit into the overall schedule.
New entrants to teaching are still on inferior pay scales which are reduced well beyond the cuts endured by all public servants. Younger teachers are on lower pay scales than their longer-serving colleagues despite carrying out exactly the same duties.
At second-level, obtaining a permanent and pensionable job is becoming a rarity rather than the norm, and the lack of full-time jobs for recently qualified teachers is damaging education and creating instability in the classroom. Where once teachers applied for full-time, permanent positions, now they apply for fragments of jobs with little guarantee of employment from year to year. Newly qualified teachers are forced to pay into a pension scheme that they are unlikely ever to get a net benefit from unless they live well into their nineties.
These are the reasons why many schools are finding it nearly impossible to find teachers, and it is only by addressing these issues that a solution will be found.
Kevin P McCarthy