At least 951 teacher posts in primary and special schools are vacant and schools expect this number to treble in coming months because of the teacher shortage.
That is according to a survey carried out by primary teacher union the INTO, in conjunction with the Catholic Primary School Managers Association and the Irish Primary Principals’ Network.
More than 1,300 schools participated in the survey, which was completed earlier this month. This represents 40% of all primary and special schools.
The schools also anticipate a further 1,816 vacancies by next January as a result of expected retirements, maternity and other kinds of long-term leave.
The INTO has said the findings “paint a deeply concerning picture of an enormous crisis in our primary and special schools”.
The vacant posts comprise 195 permanent jobs and 756 long-term temporary or substitute positions.
The survey found that the recruitment crisis is most acute in Dublin, and in counties Wicklow and Kildare, where more than half of schools reported unfilled teaching posts.
This tallies with previous findings and is attributed largely to the prohibitive cost of housing particularly in and around the capital.
More than half of the special schools that responded also reported vacancies.
Across all responding schools, 29% indicated that they were unable to fill all teaching positions allocated to them for this academic year.
This is just slightly higher than the figure recorded in a similar survey last year.
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Schools are filling classroom teacher gaps by taking teachers out of special education roles.
They are also relying on people not registered with the Teaching Council to fill roles. The survey found that 745 such people were employed, with 284 working in Dublin alone.
The union said: “This widespread reliance on staff who are not qualified to teach in primary and special schools highlights the severity of the teacher supply crisis.”
Calling for immediate action and a “whole-of-Government response” INTO General Secretary John Boyle said: “Unless immediate action is taken, particularly to address the housing and living cost pressures in Dublin and other urban centres, this crisis will only worsen”.
Schools have complained that the teacher shortage is having an especially detrimental impact on children with additional needs.
“[Schools] often have no option when mainstream classes are without teachers but to redeploy Special Education Teachers, thereby compromising the specific supports for children with additional needs”, Mr Boyle said.
“This appalling situation looks set to continue until the Government ensures that Ireland has an adequate supply of teachers.”
Our Lady Immaculate Senior National School in Dublin’s Darndale has 2.5 teacher vacancies.
The school has advertised four times to fill one full-time fixed-term classroom teacher post.
It found a suitable candidate when it first advertised last May but that teacher then opted to take a job in another school that suited their circumstances better.
Advertising twice over the summer, not a single qualified teacher applied. Advertising the job for a fourth time, last month, the single applicant seemed promising but on the morning of the interview the candidate called to say they had taken a job elsewhere.
“We have a team of Special Education teachers who work with children who have issues with literacy, with numeracy, or with their general behaviour or well-being and we have been forced to take a teacher from that team for that class”, Principal Shane Loftus told RTÉ News.
The Department of Education does not allow schools to do this, and when I point that out Mr Loftus said: “And that’s easy to say when you are sitting somewhere in an office”.
“We are being forced to use a special education teacher to fill the cap because obviously you have to have a teacher in front of a class.”
So vulnerable children in this highly disadvantaged area are missing out on support and this is having “a serious impact”, according to the principal.
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Shane Loftus is concerned about the impact on children but also about the potential impact on staff.
He said: “We are very fortunate to have amazing teachers and SNAs, but the team are stretching themselves and my biggest concern is that they are stretching themselves so far that at some point that could snap.”
Mr Loftus is describing challenges all too familiar to school leaders in many schools in and around the capital and in other urban areas such as Cork city where housing costs and shortages continue to have a detrimental impact on teacher supply.
Schools also continue to struggle to find substitute teachers to cover short-term absences.
Mr Loftus said school principals dread the late night or early morning text that may indicate that a staff member is ill.
“It doesn’t happen too often, but in any walk of life you will have people who get sick. At seven or eight in the morning, when the phone beeps you get that feeling in the pit of your stomach because you know the difficulty you will face [trying to find a sub].”
Just prior to the pandemic, in a welcome initiative, the Department of Education created panels of extra teachers in areas across the country.
The plan was that schools in each area could draw teachers from those panels as required for emergency substitute cover.
Our Lady Immaculate is the base school for the Dublin 17 panel which has five posts and serves 11 local primary schools. However, all five posts are unfilled this year for the second year running. Despite advertising on a number of occasions the school can find no teachers to take up these full-time jobs.
In this survey, 39% of schools reported having had to sub-divide classes into other classrooms already this year, because a substitute teacher could not be found. This occurred most frequently in Gaelscoileanna and in larger schools.
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The INTO has called for a national teacher supply commission to be established, with a focus on financial incentives, job stability and career progression for teachers.
It wants an increase of 300 on initial teacher education courses and a campaign to encourage and incentivise teachers who have moved to work abroad to return home. But wider measures are needed too.
INTO General Secretary John Boyle said: “Housing, living costs, and working conditions must all be addressed if we are to retain our teaching workforce and ensure viable future delivery of primary and special education in Ireland.”
In a statement, the Department of Education said it acknowledged that some schools are experiencing acute recruitment challenges, despite “the vast majority of allocated teaching posts” being filled.
It said that a projection of the number of students enrolled at primary level, which was published in March, indicated that enrolments will decline until 2036. However, it said, it is “not assumed that this decrease will address the recruitment issues that some school experience”.
The department added: “The Government acknowledges that the housing issue present particular challenges and are a source of concern for all public service workers, including those in the education sector.”
