Dr. Anne Looney:

I have just come back from a conference on school leadership in Alberta in Canada that included speakers from a wide range of countries, all of which have chronic teacher supply issues. They simply cannot attract enough applicants into teacher education programmes, which is not Ireland's problem. However, all these countries can remember the good old days when teaching was highly regarded and teacher education programmes were over-subscribed, as they currently are in Ireland. If we want to avoid joining the very long list of countries with chronic teacher recruitment issues, then we need to take care when we describe our current difficulties. We need to draw on data rather than anecdotes, patterns rather than perceptions, and above all else we need to avoid taking actions that may curtail the enthusiasm of those preparing, or choosing, to teach. We need to avoid using language that might seem to blame those currently teaching for wanting to broaden their professional experience or save money for a house by leaving the country for a period of time. Equally, we need to make sure that in every announcement made about system expansion or system development, account is taken of the impact on teacher supply and confidence therein.

We are confident that the new task force established by the Department has the appetite for this task, and for the longer-term goal of securing better data for workforce planning for the teaching profession in Ireland.

Like our colleagues, we are working actively with it. For some of our students in DCU, however, it is too late. More than 300 students are preparing to teach religious education and either English, history or music in post-primary schools, on one of those oversubscribed and in-demand concurrent teacher education programmes. They recently woke up to an announcement from the Department that new arrangements for the teaching of religious education in ETB schools were to be put in place. The announcement sent them online looking for international options, as the jobs they expected to move into in the fastest growing sector in the Irish education system appeared to them to have been swept away. We wonder too, if those graduating next year as primary teachers may be more inclined to get international experience on graduating if the career break that has long been a part of the experience of the young Irish primary teacher may not be as readily available to them in the future.

If teacher supply issues are to be managed effectively, then all future system developments and announcements, whether about school places, new subjects on the curriculum, new arrangements for subjects, new policies, additional resources and even reductions in the pupil-teacher ratio, have to include consideration of the obvious and sometimes not so obvious impact on teacher supply. We are very happy to discuss the points made, and any others, with members of the committee.