‘If people don’t get a job, they’re going to go to Australia or Dubai’: Concern over teacher shortage in Cork schools

Secondary schools in Cork are struggling to find teachers ahead of the new academic year due to “easily-resolvable issues”, it has been claimed.

New data from the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) shows huge percentages of schools unable to find teachers.

A 2024 Red C/ASTI survey found that 82% of second-level schools nationally had no applications for an advertised post or posts in 2023/24 and 87% said there were no substitute teachers available to cover for absent staff. Some 77% said they had to employ non-qualified or casual teachers to manage supply issues.

Others had to resort to reassigning special educational needs teachers to mainstream classes and almost a fifth of schools removed one or more subjects from the curriculum.

“Removing a subject like physics or chemistry is common, as is combining two smaller classes to make a bigger one and sparing a teacher that way, but bigger classes make it more difficult for both students and teachers,” Cork teacher and former ASTI president Ann Piggott told The Echo. She said the teacher crisis is caused by “problems that could be resolved” and many vacant positions are part-time roles advertised in the middle of the year.

“Lots of secondary teachers have to work two years before they get a permanent job,” Ms Piggott said. 

'THEY'LL GO TO AUSTRALIA OR DUBAI'

“Nobody is going to be sitting around waiting until October to get a few months’ work, maybe. If people don’t get a job, they’re going to go to Australia or Dubai.”

“A lot of changes came about during the recession in 2019 and the fallout is still not resolved: Teachers, like other professions, did extra work, but while the extra work was withdrawn for other professions, it’s still there for teachers.”

Teachers are having to stay after school for things like Croke Park Hours, for time allocated to non-class activities, which would previously have necessitated a school closure or half day, and because of changes in the curriculum.

“The new classroom-based assessments (CBAs) for Junior Cert are taking three or four weeks out of a teacher’s time. The course hasn’t lessened, so the same material still all needs to be covered, but also they need to do their projects: It’s stressful for the students and the teachers,” Ms Piggott said.

“Substitution and supervision used to be offered as extra paid hours, but now it is written in to teacher’s contracts,“ meaning any free time they had between classes to plan for their next class is now eaten up. Teachers could work all day long, stay in for an open night that’s four hours long, and not see their own children when they go home. It’s no longer an attractive profession.” 

Teachers nearing retirement are leaving earlier due to burnout, and young teachers are moving abroad. Ms Piggott said that a former colleague of hers came back from Australia to Ireland only to return to Australia again. 

Historically, “you could afford to buy a house and have a family on a teaching salary, but house prices are astronomical now and pay scales mean they have to work years to be able to afford one. Some looking for a house by themselves will never be able to afford it,” she said.