Teacher shortage already so ‘dire’ it will have ‘long-term economic impact’

SECONDARY schools across the country are being forced to cut subjects, combine classes and hire non-qualified staff to combat the unprecedented shortage of teachers, both union leaders and principals have warned.

As a result, Leaving Cert students are increasingly left without the qualifications for their chosen university degree – while younger students are losing out on crucial skills such as literacy and numeracy.

Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) president Geraldine O’Brien warned that the staffing crisis will ultimately have a negative effect on the quality of graduates.

She told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘It will impact, long-term, on our economy.

‘Where will we be recruiting from to fill positions in say, IT, finance or education – all of those areas – if we haven’t got the qualified students?’

The most difficult subjects to fill current teacher vacancies in are maths, Irish, home economics, chemistry and French, according to a survey from the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI).

For many schools unable to fill their vacancies, these subjects will simply be dropped.

Ms O’Brien said: ‘It’s curtailing the choice of subjects for the students. But what can management do if there isn’t a qualified teacher to teach?

‘It’s a problem that’s been simmering for years – now it’s at boiling point. Classrooms are in dire straits for the lack of teachers.’

An ASTI survey carried out earlier this year showed almost half of all secondary schools had unfilled vacancies. Alan O’Ceallaigh, principal of Scoil Mhuire Naofa, a primary school in Co. Leitrim, said the teacher shortage is now ‘incredibly widespread’.

He told the MoS: ‘I know very few schools, at the moment, that are not trying to hire teachers.’

Mr O’Ceallaigh’s school currently has two vacancies he is not able to fill. Similarly, he said it has become almost impossible to find substitutes to take over when a teacher falls ill.

He added that sometimes he has to step in to ensure there’s an adult in the classroom.

Mr O’Ceallaigh said: ‘Unlike some areas of employment, where perhaps the work can be left until the employee is back, in teaching you can’t just leave children not being taught or supervised.

‘You just have to make the most of what you can on the resources you have available. Teachers are picking up the slack but there’s a whole cohort of children who are not getting a provision that they should be getting.’

The lack of accommodation, the two-year training period required to qualify as a teacher and the rising cost of living have all contributed to the current shortage.

Recent years have also seen a large number of teaching graduates emigrating to countries such as the UK and Dubai to save money.

Almost a third of the 10,000 Irish citizens working across the United Arab Emirates – enticed by taxfree salaries and free accommodation – are teachers.

But in Ireland, although the average starting salary for a teacher has increased to €35,000 in the past few years, the pay scale remains stagnant.

Ms O’Brien explained: ‘Traditionally, two teachers could very comfortably afford a mortgage on a house in Dublin. Today, that’s not possible.’ There are currently 182 vacant posts for secondary school teachers advertised on educationposts.ie, and 313 for positions in primary schools – a number Mr O’Ceallaigh says is ‘incredibly high’ for this time of year.

He added: ‘Of the 313 vacancies, 86 are for fixed-term positions. Normally that would be at the zero mark. Previously, fixed-term contracts would have been very sought after positions.’

However, the number of posts advertised midway through the first term of the school year does not illustrate the full scale of the problem. TUI general secretary Michael Gillespie said many schools who are still missing a teacher by the start of the school year usually drop the subject.

He told the MoS: ‘I know a school that couldn’t find a home economics teacher so simply started PE as a fifth and sixth year subject instead. And they’re lucky to have a subject to replace it. In other schools, whole subjects are being lost or classes have to be combined.’

Ireland already has some of the biggest class sizes in Europe – many schools have nearly 30 students in a class at one time.

There’s also been a marked demographic increase, adding to a school system already over-pressured by the influx of more than 13,000 Ukrainian children. Teachers and principals have urged the Government

‘It’s a problem that has been simmering for years’

to reduce the salary scale, halve the training time and cut unnecessary after-school hours.

The Department of Education said it is ‘undertaking a comprehensive programme to support the supply of teachers’.

A spokesman said these measures include encouraging retired teachers to take up short-term substitute positions, suspending the limits on the days a teacher on a career break can be employed in a substitute capacity and introducing a teacher sharing scheme pilot.

‘Traditionally, teachers could afford a mortgage’