Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim mo bhuíochas do Theachta Byrne as ucht an rún seo a chur os ár gcomhair mar tá sé fíor-thábhachtach. Caithfimid an fhadhb seo a fhuascailt chomh luath agus is féidir. As a former teacher who spent 12 years in the profession, including three as an acting principal, I want to point out that this has been an issue for some time. I remember being in a school in Trumra in County Laois in 2012, a rural school, and having difficulty with sourcing substitute teachers at that time. It has been a problem for some time, but it certainly is becoming worse. It is impacting greatly on the teaching profession, which is being undervalued and is not being given the respect it deserves. Morale is low among teachers, as has been pointed out by several trade unions, including the Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO, the Teachers' Union of Ireland, TUI, and the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland, ASTI, for some time now. We teachers have been saying it ourselves for some time. It needs to be addressed. Enrolments are increasing and teachers are retiring and our young teachers are going abroad, as Deputy Funchion pointed out. Why should they stay here and be disrespected? They are doing the very same work as other teachers working alongside them but are getting paid less. It comes down to having respect and giving people fair play. In order to resolve this we must look at the pay issue. A commitment must be made.

We know there is dissatisfaction. The facts are there. CAO points have dropped significantly in 2017, with a small reduction in applications for primary teaching courses and a marked reduction in secondary teaching courses. The most dramatic drops in applications were seen in specialist courses such as home economics. The situation for secondary school teachers is absolutely appalling, with the casualisation of work. Secondary school teachers who have spent years training and who see the job as a vocation rather than a career are being treated in an appalling manner. They are expected to work four hours a week and they are not given any fair play in terms of contracts. That needs to change.

The Minister is aware of teacher shortages and that they are particularly severe in specialist education, including in maths, science and languages, as well as in locations with higher costs of living, such as Dublin. While geography plays a role, socio-economically disadvantaged urban and rural schools experience the greatest shortages. I spent time as a principal, and I commend principals from around the State for the work they do and indeed the teachers who teach alongside them. An extra burden is put on principals, which is unfair. It must be resolved as soon as possible. It affects pupils. We have to think of our children and give them the best opportunities possible. There are fantastic, high calibre teachers out there. There still are, and we are fortunate to still have some. Many of them are gone however. We need to be able to bring in incentives - pay equality would be a good start - in order to entice them to come back.

Whilst some of the current conditions are a legacy of the increased demand for teachers during the Celtic tiger years when schools adopted lower teacher-pupil ratio policies, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, now claims that the recently strengthened economy is again to blame for teacher shortages. It is not. The teaching profession has always been highly regarded. Teacher unions insist that the two-tier pay gap is causing the crisis in filling short absences. That is absolutely correct. I have heard that from teachers myself. I worked alongside young teachers and tried to encourage them. They did their best, but their morale was low and it still is.

A snapshot of the current crisis can be gleaned clearly from a recent survey which was carried out by the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association, CPSMA, which says that its survey of more than 800 principals provides clear and compelling evidence of a nationwide shortage. It is beyond belief that the Department of Education and Skills stated that it believes there is no issue with recruiting extra teachers. There is an issue. One data set from the CPSMA survey indicated that more than 80% of respondents claimed they were finding it harder to recruit substitute teachers this year compared to last year, indicating that this shortage is getting worse. According to a recent report by the Irish Primary Principals Network, IPPN, up to 36% of schools were unable to source a substitute teacher on ten or more occasions since September last year.

The fact is that out of 15,500 days of teacher absences between 1 September and 31 October 2017, schools had been unable to replace teachers for almost 4,000 of those days. It was further revealed that almost 5,000 days were covered by non-registered and non-qualified teachers. That is very unfair to our pupils. They are ill-prepared for examinations, and we need to resolve this problem quickly. The Gaelscoileanna are having particular difficulties in that special education teachers are being redeployed to supervise mainstream classes. I am not alone in believing that these shortages will, in time, have a detrimental effect on the quality of education being provided to pupils, particularly to those with special educational needs.

I will conclude on the following point. If this teacher shortage problem is not urgently addressed, we will not be able to build the best education system in Europe, to which the Minister has aspired. One way of addressing this crisis is to simply end inequality in terms of teachers' pay. The Minister should give a commitment to equal pay for equal work. Bad policy always reaps negative consequences and this current teacher shortage is a prime example of that bad policy.

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