Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The report of the technical working group that was set up by the Teaching Council to formulate advice on teacher supply focuses on the development of a model of primary teacher supply and outlines the work that will be required in the future to establish a model of post-primary teacher supply. I intend to publish the report shortly. While the Department of Education and Skills has no evidence of an overall shortage of teachers, it is aware of certain pinch points to which the Deputy has adverted. The aim of the Department’s policy is to achieve a balance between the supply of and demand for teachers. When the report is published, the Deputy will see that this is a particularly complex issue at post-primary level because of the absence of a central mechanism for matching the overall subject need requirements of schools with the output from the initial teacher education providers. In addition, schools have significant autonomy in providing a mix of subjects and choices for students. The final report of the technical working group sets out an approach to planning which scopes out the work needed to develop a model for forecasting teacher supply in the medium to long term. Engagement with the providers of initial teacher education programmes will be necessary to ensure supply meets demand and we have the correct balance of teachers in the each of the various subject areas.

The report is of value in regard to building data models for predicting future requirements in the longer term. However, it does not address the short-term issues to which the Deputy referred. In the meantime, I am committed to advancing short-term measures to address teacher shortages, including the employment by schools of retired teachers and those on career break, and an increase in the number of days per school year that a post-primary teacher on career break may work as a substitute.

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