A principal of a school in Dublin has branded the Department of Education’s response to the teacher shortage “a disgrace” after being forced to send home substitute teachers.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Tonya Hanly of Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School in Dublin 8 said she was forced to send home two teachers who are subbing at the school after the department said she could not employ them.
The teachers had been working at the school last year but had taken career breaks to go to Australia in a few months’ time.
They had then agreed to work as substitute teachers for a few weeks after the school was unable to fill the vacancies.
Hanly was then informed by the Department of Education yesterday that they cannot afford to pay the two teachers.
They said that teachers who are on a career break can only work as substitutes for jobs that are vacant as a result of maternity or sick leave.
She told RTÉ: “It’s really challenging for us to manage the needs of our children with extreme needs, with a third of our staff missing.
“We’ve tried to focus here on early intervention because that’s absolutely vital.
“But we’ve had to pull some of that away now because there are children, older children, across the school who are in need of extra support for literacy and numeracy.
“And we’ve had to identify those across the school and just do the best we can with what we have.”
The Teachers’ Union of Ireland has said that in order for teachers to remain in these positions, they must be attractive in terms of career structures.
They also noted that a recent survey of members showed that less than a third of teachers appointed received a full-time contract, with one in ten teachers being offered permanent positions.
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