Number of Cork schools forced to redeploy special ed staff as absence cover

Almost half of all Cork primary schools that responded to a survey by their union have had to redeploy special education teachers to teach mainstream classes so far this year, a new study has shown.

The survey of primary and special schools was conducted by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) during October, in partnership with the Irish Primary Principals’ Network and the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association.

Deirdre O’Connor, the INTO’s deputy general secretary, told The Echo that 62 schools from Cork had taken part in the survey.

As part of the survey in October, three of these schools reported that they had been unable to fill all their vacant permanent, temporary, and long-term substitute positions.

“Also, 30 schools reported that they had redeployed special education teachers to cover for absent colleagues, which is a significant problem which impacts on the children who are supposed to be receiving special education teaching,” said Ms O’Connor.

“In one school in Cork, they had redeployed this teacher for 16-20 days, which is effectively the whole of September that teacher wasn’t available to take his or her special ed class group.”

Reliance on substitutes  

She said 13 schools had reported using an unqualified person in place of a substitute teacher, and there was a big dependence on student teachers in Cork.

Ms O’Connor said that nationally, special schools, Gaelscoileanna, and schools in disadvantaged areas were most affected by the issues.

“There is a number of special schools in Cork city, and they find it harder to recruit permanent and temporary teachers, and to get substitutes,” she said.

She said these three types of schools were the most challenging, particularly for new teachers, and called on the Government to incentivise people to take up these roles.

“We believe that the Department of Education hasn’t stepped up to the plate."

“We were lobbying before the budget for a reduction in class sizes, and we didn’t get that. This would make a huge difference to the attractiveness of teaching and getting teachers to stay here rather than go abroad.”

Nationally, special schools had the highest percentage of reported vacant posts at 56%, while 43% of Gaelscoileanna, 35% of Deis Band 2, and 32% of Deis Band 1 schools reported long-term vacancies, compared to 10% of mainstream schools.

There are 234 reported vacant posts in primary and special schools nationally, and some 60% of the responding schools reported that they had been unable to source a substitute for an absence.

Significantly, 56 schools reported that they had 10 or more days in September when they could not get a substitute.

In addition to this, 283 people with no teaching qualification had carried out substitute work in schools up to mid-October.