Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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671. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the steps that are being taken to respond to the teacher retention crisis in primary and secondary schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [63324/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The recruitment and retention of teachers is a priority area of action for the Department given the importance of ensuring that every child's experience in school is positive and that they have available to them qualified, engaged and supportive teachers to support them in their learning.

While I am aware that schools are experiencing challenges in both recruiting teachers and obtaining substitute teachers, I note that currently over 99% sanctioned teacher positions in primary schools and 98% in post primary are filled. Officials have informed me that the rate of early-retirement and resignation is consistent with previous years. 

My Department is undertaking a comprehensive programme to support the supply of teachers. Officials engage closely with school management bodies and other education stakeholders to inform this work.

Particular initiatives include providing for the allocation of a significant number of additional posts to primary substitute teacher supply panels in areas where significant challenges in sourcing substitution continue. This brings the total to 610 posts on 151 panels covering more than 2,840 schools. Supply panels work alongside the existing methods of sourcing substitute teachers and schools can also make local arrangements to have their own regular substitutes to call on if needed.

Following from the Department’s Action Plan on Teacher Supply, the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN) has developed a portal for the recruitment of teachers to long-term teaching positions. The portal will facilitate the matching of demand and supply and provide an efficient and user-friendly recruitment process for both schools and teachers. I understand that the portal will be available in the coming weeks. This service, known as Sub Seeker matches available primary and post-primary teachers with short-term substitute vacancies. This portal for short-term substitute vacancies was jointly developed by IPPN and the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals.  To date, almost 12,000 teachers have registered with Sub Seeker.

Additionally a number of measures to enhance the supply of substitute teachers have also been put in place for the current school year; including temporarily suspending the limits that applied to teachers on career break undertaking substitute work during the 2022/23 school year. Job sharing teachers may be employed to work in a substitute capacity during the period they are rostered off, in their own or in other schools.

Retired teachers who have kept their Teaching Council registration represent a source of substitute cover for schools. In that regard the Department agreed with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform a waiver of abatement for retired teachers returning to teach for up to 50 days in each of the three calendar years, 2021 to 2023 inclusive. In 2021, almost 800 retired primary teachers, and over 200 port-primary teachers provided substitute cover in schools.

The Teaching Council has introduced regulations allowing for the registration of 3rd and 4th year undergraduate student teachers under a new registration route: Route 5 (Student Teachers).  More than 2,100 student teachers registered under this route. This initiative has enabled the employment of  student teachers to cover substitutable vacancies.

At post-primary level the Department has put in place a scheme that allows teachers to teach additional hours in their subject area over the usual 22-hour limit, up to a maximum of 20 additional hours per term.

To meet longer term teacher demand, higher education institutions have developed new 4 year initial teacher education programmes in a number of post-primary priority subject areas, including Irish, mathematics, computer science and modern foreign languages.

In addition, the Department fully funds teachers to participate in upskilling programmes in mathematics, physics and Spanish. The first cohort of participants, approximately 170 teachers, completed these programmes in 2022 and more than 300 teachers will graduate in 2023. It is also intended to commence an upskilling programme in Irish in 2023/24.

The Department introduced a scheme to allow post-primary schools to share teachers, the aim of which is to recruit teachers in high-demand subjects and give teachers a full-time teaching contract.

These measures are underpinned by the Teaching Transforms campaign which promotes the teaching profession and encourages students to follow a career in teaching. The campaign is supported by the dedicated webpage on gov.ie.

It is acknowledged that despite the positive impact of these important actions, work remains to be done to address teacher supply challenges, particularly to ensure the availability of sufficient substitute teachers. The Department continues to work closely and intensively with stakeholders to develop and implement creative solutions to address the teacher supply challenges for schools.