MINISTER FOR EDUCATION Norma Foley has said her department is “open to look at everything” – including halving the length of teacher training programmes – to address the crisis in the availability of teachers.

The head of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) called on the minister to “seriously explore the possibility” of making the second year of mandatory secondary teacher training school-based at the association’s annual conference this morning.

Speaking to the media at the NAPD conference, Foley acknowledged the crisis and claimed her Department has been proactive in trying to find solutions to the issue.

Secondary principals and deputy principals told The Journal yesterday that they are struggling to fill teaching positions in their schools due to the housing crisis, a lack of full-time employment and more attractive opportunities abroad.

One principal described the situation as an “absolute nightmare” while another said schools in Dublin “can’t compete” with other areas where costs are lower. 

Foley said: “I do want to concede that there are challenges greater in some areas, particularly perhaps in our cities, than there are in others.

“But we have been proactive in this and I want to acknowledge the support that we have received from the partners in education here. We’ve introduced a variety of different measures,” she said.

These measures include funding to roll out upskilling programmes for certain subjects and a new €2,000 payment to all newly qualified teachers holding a Professional Masters in Education (PME).

Several principals, and the president of the NAPD Shane Foley, raised the possibility of shortening the PME programme from two years to one year with The Journal. This would allow teachers to teach full-time in schools after one year of training.

Asked whether the Department was considering reverting a one-year teacher training qualification, Foley said: “We’re open to look at everything.”

However, she noted that there was a lot for teachers to learn, including in relation to special education. 

“There’s more and more being asked and there’s wider expectation on teachers. The course that they have to follow, it makes it all the more consuming and all the more demanding and that’s a significant consideration as well, but we keep everything under review,” she said.

Addressing the conference this morning, NAPD president Foley acknowledged the €2,000 allowance for PME graduates but said they still face “a massive financial burden”. 

“We’d like to encourage you to seriously explore the possibility of year two of the PME being school based,” he said to the Minister, adding that this would allow trainee teachers ”to learn a profession, take a contract and earn while they learn”.

Addressing the conference, the Minister acknowledged the challenge of teaching supply for schools around the country.

“Some of this is due to our present circumstances. Compared to 2019, we have over 5,000 more teaching posts in Irish schools, for example. As a country, we are now at near full employment, meaning that there is a natural tightness in the labour market,” she said.

“None of this is to wish the present situation away because I also know that much of this challenge falls on your shoulders as school leaders, scouting and searching to try to fill posts as they arise in your school. I know this and I want to do as much as possible to address it.”

She said that more than 3,500 newly qualified teachers have registered with the Teaching Council to date this year, bringing the total number of teachers on the Council’s register to 119,000.

Currently, teachers can provide up to 35 additional hours substitute cover per term, while job-sharing teachers can be employed to work as substitutes during the period they are rostered off-duty, and retired teachers can teach for up to 50 days without reducing their pension.

The Department is also piloting a scheme this year to allow post-primary schools to share teachers, with the aim of recruiting teachers in high-demand subjects and giving them a full-time teaching contract.

Foley said that despite those measures, she is “more than conscious” that work remains to be done and said the Department will continue “to work intensively with all education partners to develop and implement creative solutions to address teacher supply challenges”.

As part of Budget 2024, the Department announced an increase in capitation by over €81 million, €21 million of which will be permanent core funding.

It also announced free schoolbooks and classroom resources for Junior Cycle students. However, this will not apply to digital devices such as iPads. 

Foley said today: “I absolutely accept that some schools are rolling out the technology devices. Separately to that, the Department over two years provided more than €100 million to schools in terms of digital technology.

“When I visit schools myself, I have seen the schools have purchased the devices, I see that they loan them to students, they’re shared amongst the student body as it were.

“As the first step what we have done, we have concentrated on the books as we did at primary school and the classroom resources and we will continue to support in terms of ICT.”