Shortage of substitute teachers at crisis level

A SEVERE shortage of substitute teachers means children may be sent home from school due to lack of staff.

Newly qualified teachers being lured by secure jobs and big salaries in the Middle East has left an emergency shortfall here.

Primary teacher wages start at just under €33,000 in Ireland. In the Middle East they can start on €37,000 tax-free, with free accommodation and flights home as standard perks.

Currently, there are just 30 stand-in teachers available nationwide each day to cover absences across the country’s 3,300 schools.

It takes at least 800 such subs to cover the country, according to the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation. It says the system is at breaking point and schools will be forced to turn away children.

The INTO’s Peter Mullan said: ‘It’s a likely scenario. At this time of year, you’d need 800 to 1,000 substitutes a day. Yet there has only been 30 to 40 available daily.

‘Schools will do their level best to ensure children can come to school… Classes are divided up and shared out to other teachers, learning support teachers may be diverted to take over a class, and principals have been known to go in themselves.

‘It’s a far-from-ideal scenario as it is. Parents will object at some stage about there being 10 extra kids in the classroom.’

One Dublin city principal said: ‘This is an educational emergency, yet it seems nothing is being done about it.’

Winter is the busiest time for substitute teachers, who work freelance. Work is scarce the rest of the year.

The INTO says the Department must establish dedicated panels of supply teachers who are paid regularly for their availability.

Mr Mullan says ‘a significant shortage in the early to mid-2000s’ led to ‘a major dip in Ireland’s standing’ in the OECD international literacy test.

The Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.

Schools will be forced to turn away children