At this time of year, school reception areas are filled with nervous teachers waiting to be interviewed. Most candidates will have taken the time to research the role as well as their chosen school’s ethos and its policies. What is never explained to them – and this ought to be covered on the teacher training PME (professional master of education) course – is that when it comes to many of the advertised positions, principals will often already have an internal candidate in mind.
Who? A teacher who has already worked on a one-year fixed term contract but, having got to know the students and staff, will still have to go through the interview process at least twice before they are granted the coveted contract of indefinite duration or (CID). Thus, what looks like an open playing field on websites such as Educationposts.ie is, in reality, anything but.
Thus, before applying, more experienced teachers often phone schools to ask, “is this a real job?” In essence, sending in a CV feels like a roll of the dice. I am lucky to work for a good school whose management team is caring, professional and diligent but in the past, my own experience when applying for history teaching jobs has been extremely demoralising.
I am a professional candidate. I am never rude or abrupt. However, in response to my requests for constructive feedback, I have often been met a bewilderingly pithy, ‘I have nothing to suggest’
Despite holding a PhD with six publications to my name, not to mention book chapters and journal articles, I have often met a similar level of opacity – either failing to be shortlisted for positions that I was more than qualified for or, having been interviewed, encountering a baffling radio silence thereafter.
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I am a professional candidate. I am never rude or abrupt. I do not believe in closing doors. However, in response to my requests for constructive feedback, I have often been met a bewilderingly pithy, “I have nothing to suggest”, or else find a generic copy-and-paste response in my inbox that refers to the high number of candidates; that it may not be possible to offer individual feedback etc. For somebody with my level of attainment, work ethic and proven classroom ability, this is more than egregious.
Currently, it would appear that there is no statutory legal requirement for Irish schools to advertise teaching posts when there is already an internal candidate in mind but they do so anyway. In this, the Irish education system follows custom and practice, just like the Irish Civil Service. As a result, every April hundreds of jobs are posted online but only a handful are fair and open.
Not only does this waste the valuable time of school management, it also severely demoralises young teaching candidates who spend countless sleepless hours wondering about a post or waiting interminably for a phone call that will never come.
This gives rise to another issue – many seasoned teachers who want to move schools simply eschew the May postings and instead wait until the new term starts in September. They will tell you that this is because any positions that are advertised at that point are ‘real jobs’. In other words, they are posted because there is no teacher available to fill those roles. This causes havoc for school management who, having started the year with a full complement of staff, suddenly find that they have lost four or five teachers before the Halloween break.
Given the total lack of transparency in Irish teacher recruitment, it is therefore no wonder that our young graduates are attracted to countries such as New Zealand or Australia where they can secure a permanent teaching contract from the outset. If we want to retain these highly talented, well-educated workers, the rate of pay and cost of living are only two factors.
Our recruitment system also needs a serious overhaul.
Barry Kennerk is a second level teacher
