Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

There are very immediate things that can be done. Some of the obstacles to teachers with qualifications from abroad could be removed.

I will provide another example, this one a letter from the deputy principal of St. Aidan’s Senior National School in Brookfield. She wrote:

Our school was granted permission to open a classroom for our pupils with a Mild General Learning Disability a number of years ago. However, like many schools in Dublin, we have been unable to hire enough teachers and so we were unable to open this class this year. We were also unable to hire the full complement of SET teachers that we were allocated, and so, once again, our most vulnerable pupils missed out.

These two positions are considered unfilled temporary contracts. The current policy of the Department of Education dictates that we are prohibited from hiring substitute teachers to cover these positions on a short-term basis.

This is an unnecessary block to the proper education that our most vulnerable pupils need and deserve. There is a teacher who regularly subs in our school who has indicated she would be happy to cover one of these positions for a number of months but she is not able to take on a temporary contract.

A policy of the Department is creating an obstacle and there is a teacher who could take up the role. Could the policy be changed?

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