Ms Joanne Irwin:

I thank the Chairman. The Teachers' Union of Ireland, TUI, represents more than 17,000 teachers and lecturers employed by education and training boards, community and comprehensive schools, voluntary secondary schools and institutes of technology. We welcome the opportunity to address the joint committee on this very important issue.

As members will know, Ireland has an internationally acknowledged, high performing education system. In 2015 the OECD made it very clear that an education system was only as good as its teachers. However, the education system is being undermined by a crisis in teacher recruitment and retention. That crisis has been documented in separate research carried out by our own principals and deputy principals’ organisation and the Association of Community and Comprehensive Schools and the Joint Managerial Body. I will not go into the research carried by these organisations. I am sure they will do it themselves. It has also been referenced on a number of occasions by the Minister for Education and Skills and the Teaching Council. Unless it is addressed properly, the scale of the crisis will increase even further, given that there will be an extra 70,000 students in the education system by 2025. All of the research at which we have looked in that regard has shown that there is a direct link between the crisis in teacher recruitment and retention and the discriminatory pay scales introduced in 2011. For teachers and all workers in the public sector, there was a pay cut in 2011. Unfortunately for teachers, they were hit again in 2012 when they lost their qualifications allowance. In 2014 the honours diploma, HDip, which was a one-year programme became a two-year programme. All of these factors layered on top of each other have made teaching less attractive as a profession. We believe that, unless pay discrimination against those who entered the profession since 2011 is ended, the position will only get worse.

I make it very clear that for post-primary teachers, pay equality means not only removing the two additional points of the scale but also restoring the HDip allowance, particularly now that it is a two-year programme, as opposed to a one-year programme, and incremental recognition for pre-service training which teachers received prior to 2011. In September 2016 there was explicit recognition that pay was at the heart of the problem when the TUI; the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, INTO; the Department of Education and Skills; and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform reached an agreement to restore one of the allowances.

The key points made in our submission are the following. The cuts to pay and conditions for new entrants since 2011 have exacerbated the entire problem. The majority of applications for post-primary teaching are processed through the Postgraduate Applications Centre, PAC. Since 2011 there has been an alarming and unprecedented decline of 62% in the number of applications received. The output of graduates from these programmes has also declined by 27%. In 2011 there were more than 2,800 applicants through the PAC. As of today, there are 1,100 applicants and that is after the programme was extended. A total of 1,100 is not enough to meet the need.

There has also been a huge increase in the number of teachers emigrating. In 2008, 4% of teachers emigrated. According the the Higher Education Authority, HEA, that figure has increased to 21%. We hear daily that it is increasing even further. At a recent recruitment fair in an Irish university for teachers who were soon to qualify, there were 42 stands, 36 of which were hosted by international recruitment agencies or groups of schools. They are coming to Ireland to take abroad the teachers whom we train and educate here.

Most important is the service we can provide for students in schools. There is severe disruption because of timetable changes and restrictions necessitated by the lack of qualified teachers, including teachers for substitution. Students are losing out on educational opportunities both inside and outside school. There is an absence of subject specialist teachers to cover for colleagues who are engaged in work for agencies such as the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA; the State Examinations Commission, SEC; and the Professional Development Service for Teachers, PDST. Schools are now reluctant to let teachers go and work in these organisations because they cannot get substitute cover for them at home. In many instances, schools cannot get teachers of Irish, mathematics or home economics. However, it is not limited to these three subjects. Our own principals and deputy principals carried out a survey in March which found that 96% of schools were having difficulty in recruiting teachers across a range of subjects, not just the ones about which we hear a lot such as the science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEM, subjects.

There are many more attractive opportunities in other graduate entry employments. This year the HEA found that graduates in the areas of science, mathematics, engineering, construction and health and welfare were in a position to earn considerably more in other graduate entry employments than they would in teaching. Teaching is no longer an attractive profession. One has to complete a three or four-year degree and then decide whether one can afford to stay on or to attain a two-year teaching qualification. The Minister has announced various short-term patches or fixes to try to resolve the issue, but we make it very clear that the only solution to the teacher supply crisis is the abolition of the discriminatory pay scales for new entrant teachers. It is very worrying that the average age of people entering teaching is now 26 years. We believe this is firmly linked with the cuts in teachers' pay in 2011, 2012 and 2013.