Dr. Seán Rowland:

I thank the committee for the invitation to be here today. I appreciate it. Hibernia College is almost 20 years old now. We have put approximately 10,000 teachers into the education system at primary level and, more recently, post-primary level. We have made a submission. I will just highlight the three main points we have made and drill down a bit in respect of each. We are recommending incentivising the teachers' careers, being more flexible and mobile in our preparation of teachers, and making more use of technology-assisted solutions.

With regard to incentivising careers, we ask for a return to the issue of pay. We all agree that paying less to people coming to the profession now is psychologically problematic. It is not even about money. It is about going into the classroom, having been recently educated with one's master's degree, and being told one is being paid less than the teacher next door. It is not about blaming politicians, the Department or anybody; it is simply a matter of natural justice. We need to address it. I understand it is being addressed. It is time to put this to bed and finally bring parity on the issue of payment.

We also need to examine the qualifications and the recognition of qualifications in the teaching profession. Teachers are continually upgrading their qualifications, whether through formal degrees or continuous professional development. I am sure all providers of continuous professional development want it recognised for their teachers. It improves the quality of teachers in our classrooms and, as a result, our students do much better.

On the second point, on being more flexible and mobile, we are examining the idea of "subject knowledge enhancement", whereby one would add to the qualifications of the teachers we have. It is a matter of asking whether a graduate-level course or recognised accredited education at third level can be offered by any provider for the person who comes to a school as the English teacher so that teacher might be able to teach two or three subjects at school level. It has happened recently in Ireland, and it certainly happens in other countries. One takes the science teacher and adds mathematics, or one takes the mathematics teacher and adds physics, making the teacher much more employable, for a start, and also much more valuable to the students.

We also recommend cluster panels. If one is a physics teacher in Mayo, where I am from, one might be teaching in three different towns but with no permanent job. One does not get travel expenses. One is basically moving one's bag of tricks from one school to the other. It is not a professional way to treat a teacher. An ideal solution, which is quite successful in other countries, is to have a cluster teacher who would be recognised as a full-time permanent physics teacher in the region and be set to work full time each year.

If a situation arises where there is no longer a full-time position, either relocate him or her or terminate his or her contract. I know that last suggestion sounds harsh, but we are in a situation where we need horses for courses. We need the proper teacher in the proper classroom. In addition, we need to look at where we are now-----