Cork primary schools facing into a teacher supply crisis 

CORK primary schools are expected to struggle with filling teaching posts — with nearly 130 vacancies expected to arise over the next three months.

A motion by Cork teacher John Driscoll around the need for more teachers for primary and special schools has been supported at the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation annual congress.

The organisation shared that Cork schools expected 114 long-term substitute vacancies in the next three months, and 14 permanent vacancies due to retirement or resignation in the same time period.

Both of these figures are the second-highest in Ireland, respectively, falling just below Dublin and representing 10% of overall long-term substitute and permanent vacancies in Ireland.

Urban areas

Mr Driscoll gave a speech at the annual congress in Derry, noting that there is a concentration of vacancies in urban areas, further highlighting the crisis in affordable housing.

“Also striking is the fact that Deis, gaelscoileanna, and special schools are disproportionately affected — the most vulnerable students are losing out on vital support,” Mr Driscoll said.

“In dealing with staff shortages on an ongoing basis, the hard-pressed principal teachers are placed in the position requiring the wisdom of Solomon.

“Redeploying special education teachers might solve one problem, but consequently causes another. The pupils in need of specific support lose out.

“Yet again, the sticking plaster, which on the surface is healing, is in reality concealing the need for major surgery.

“The restoration of ‘banking’ hours is vital for those pupils in most need and I call on [Education ] Minister Foley to reintroduce this crucial measure.”

Ahead of the conference, Mr Driscoll told The Echo: “If you don’t have a class teacher for senior infants, let’s say, the de facto situation is that the principal is relocating a special education teacher into that classroom — so if you’re a parent of a child in the class, there is a knock-on effect.

“If you’ve relocated a special education teacher for a day or two, those days they are not going to be giving specific attention to the students who need it most”, he said, and that in the pandemic, these hours lost would be made up later in the year, and that they have since lost that system and are hoping to regain it.

Different approach

His motion at the congress called on the Department of Education, in consultation with the INTO, to take a fundamentally different approach to the staffing crisis that recognises the impact of teacher shortage and focuses on enhancing the attractiveness of the teaching profession.

Proposed measures to achieve this include shortening teachers’ elongated pay scales, fully restoring middle management posts, reinstating teachers’ allowances for extra qualifications and specialised work stripped out since 2012, and giving teachers full incremental credit for every day they teach abroad.

The motion also demands that the central executive committee engages with the Department of Education to generate a category on the online claims system to allow for substitutes to be appointed in a short-term capacity where there is a permanent or fixed-term teaching vacancy in a school.