THE ASSOCIATION OF Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) has called on the Department of Education to tackle “the fundamental issues” at the heart of the ongoing recruitment and retention crisis among Irish teachers.

ASTI General Secretary Kieran Christie said that measures that have been put in place by the Minister and her predecessors up to now, while welcome, have been minimal and have not worked to address the shortages that schools across the country face.

The Minister needs to make a commitment to take a step back and look at a real reset to address this crisis. The fact of the matter is that we can’t keep going on as is, because things will only get worse.

As of 15 August, there were 484 unfilled vacancies for post-primary schools on educationposts.ie.

A poll carried out by the ASTI earlier this year found that three quarters of school leaders had received no applications for an advertised teaching post.

It was also reported that there were unfilled vacancies in almost half of all second-level schools.

The same poll found that 81% of principals surveyed had to resort to hiring “unqualified teachers” as a result of being unable to fill positions.

“What’s happening quite frankly is that they’re putting people in classrooms who aren’t teachers,” said Christie.

“But it’s understandable, if you’re a principal whose been advertising up and down the country for a geography teacher and have had no success filling the post, you have to come up with creative solutions.”

The Teaching Council allows for those who reach all the requirements for a teaching post, but who do not hold a teaching qualification, to fill a position. They will then have three years to obtain their teaching qualification.

This means that a person with a degree in maths, but who doesn’t have a teaching qualification, could fill a post as a maths teacher under the condition that they obtain their teaching qualification within three years.

This is not just an issue affecting post-primary schools.

Primary schools

The Irish National Teacher’s Organisation has also recognised a crisis in primary schools.

“Thousands of registered primary school teachers are not currently working in our schools,” said INTO General Secretary John Boyle.

“They cannot afford to pay mortgages here, and the cost of living is too high. Our class sizes are the highest in the Eurozone, and schools are poorly funded, leading to children who need wrap-around supports suffering long waiting lists.”

Cost of living pressures, along with poor prospects for advancement, have led many teachers to leave the country for opportunities elsewhere. However, this is not, said Christie, a negative in and of itself.

“The attraction of far flung shores can be strong. This has been the case for decades, and indeed it is something we encourage as its healthy. Teachers who work abroad come back with a lot of experience that they can then apply in the classroom,” he said.

However, we’re finding today that many of these teachers don’t want to come back. They don’t see any prospects for themselves here, they would find it very hard to get on the property ladder and there’s little avenue for promotion.

Another thing keeping teachers abroad, particularly in the UAE, is that only a maximum of seven years service outside the EU will be recognised on their return to Ireland when it comes to increments.

While teachers who go abroad to teach abroad in the EU or Australia would have the time they spent abroad recognised in their pay scale, those who travelled to popular areas such as Dubai in the UAE do not. 

In a statement to The Journal, the Department of Education said that “as the recruitment and appointment process is still ongoing, it is not possible at this stage to assess whether there has been an increase, or decrease, in relation to the total number of teachers who may be appointed for the 2023/24 school year”. 

“The Department’s payroll data indicated a comparatively low level of voluntary resignation by teachers. The number of resignations accounts for less than half a percent of the overall number of teachers allocated at schools,” it said.