The current deficit of teachers within the education sector has placed a significant risk to the superior, inclusive education of approximately 50,000 primary students in Ireland, with further indirect impacts upon countless additional children. Several schools persistently struggle with the recruitment and retention of educators, resulting in essential support being unavailable to children requiring it most. It is pivotal to take immediate measures to ensure every child receives education from fully accredited teachers.
Multiple factors contribute to the dwindling numbers of educators in Ireland. A stagnant career ladder, extended salary progression, scarce opportunities for growth, increased class sizes, inadequate professional growth, heavy administrative duties, and insufficiently financed institutions are detrimentally affecting the teaching profession. The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) has exposed several obstacles to teacher recruitment and retention, emphasising high housing and childcare costs, work demands and accountability pressures, handling student behaviour, communicating with parents, and societal perceptions about teachers as basic issues leading to the crisis.
Teaching is a rewarding and appealing career path in many superior performing countries. For instance, primary teaching posts in Finland are highly coveted and viewed as appealing careers. Teachers in these regions are provided the autonomy, opportunities for collaboration with peers, and involvement in instructional research, evolution and innovation. In countries such as Singapore, educators’ salaries match those of accountants and engineers, they have an exemplary induction process for newcomers and a solid three-tier career progression system, all of which serve to retain and reward teaching expertise throughout their careers.
Unfortunately, Ireland has seen a disinclination towards substantial action at a policy level, with government responses to the teacher scarcity lacking speed and efficiency. It is high time radical steps are taken to endorse the teaching profession in Ireland, enhance the influx of prospective teachers, minimise the exodus of qualified professionals towards other careers, encourage perseverance within the system and inspire those who have relocated overseas to return.
There’s a pressing need to establish a national committee tasked with discovering practical answers to the nationwide teaching shortage. The appeal of teaching as a profession must be boosted through financial incentives, employment security, and promotional support. Despite our union’s numerous proposals to the government to mitigate teacher deficiencies and create a flourishing, efficient, and adaptable educational sector for the future, our suggestions have been mostly ignored.
We advocate for the exploration of more relaxed admission criteria to initial teacher training programmes and the creation of alternative routes into the profession. However, we insist on maintaining the standard of the degree and postgraduate students being trained as primary teachers.
To tackle this teacher deficit, we recommend significantly boosting the government-funded teacher training intake, offering scholarships to increase variety in the profession, supplementing training expenses, and expanding special education training. We also propose the restoration of middle leadership roles to pre-recession levels, to avail promotional opportunities for teachers and mould future school leaders. These initiatives aim to foster career advancement, reduce teacher burnout, and guarantee a stable supply of teachers.
There’s a need for an ambitious recruitment drive to encourage teachers living abroad to return to Ireland, with recognition given for their work experience gained overseas. Furthermore, we must address housing problems faced by city workers.
The existing public sector agreement permits unions to push for local increases in pay. The INTO aims to submit claims that would enhance pay scales for primary and special school teachers. The standstill on allowances since 2012 has evidently worsened the supply crisis in many schools. We aim to reinstate allowances for teachers with additional academic qualifications and those working in specialised environments, including special schools, Irish medium schools, and schools located in areas facing severe deprivation.
In the approaching years, we will fight for the reform of primary teachers’ salary structures to make the profession more appealing to early-career and young prospective teachers. Moreover, we will request an annual “retention allowance” to incentivate veteran teachers to prolong their teaching careers.
The government must accord precedence to structural changes and the deployment of innovative strategies if the education sector is to conserve our teacher workforce and fulfil student needs, and by so doing preserve the quality of future education. Other countries courageously spend on their education systems. If we desire a flourishing educational system that includes satisfied teachers and successful students in Ireland, we must insist on increased education spending by the government.
Keeping in mind that our nation’s destiny lies within our educational institutions, it’s vital that those with a genuine passion for prioritising primary and special needs education utilise their influence to mould our classrooms of the future. With a fresh academic season gearing up amidst the challenge of teacher scarcity affecting the capacity of schools to cater to every student, it’s time for us to band together, and passionately advocate today for an enhanced future.
John Boyle currently holds the position of General Secretary at the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation.