On the face of it, these are good times for Tallaght Community School in Jobstown: enrolments have soared in the last three years and the number of classroom positions have trebled over the same period of time.
The challenge, says Conor McCarthy, is finding staff in a rapidly-growing school in the teeth of what primary school leaders describe as a teacher recruitment and retention crisis.
“It’s nice to have a bigger staff and more teaching positions, but it presents real challenges,” he says. “We’ve lucky this year in that we filled our positions, but that wasn’t the case for the last two years. There are many schools locally and across the city who aren’t as lucky. They have multiple vacancies.”
As a principal, he says the first headache comes when trying to fill teaching positions during the summer.
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“In fact, last year when we advertised, there were times when we received no applications for any positions,” he says.
That makes it difficult to plan ahead or provide certainty for children with special needs who tend to thrive and routine and certainty.
The problems don’t stop once the school year gets under way.
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“You end up making decisions on moving teachers from support teaching roles into classrooms to fill vacant positions,” he says. “It means those children with any kind of additional need – social, academic emotional or behavioural – are losing the support they are entitled to.”
He says this is especially challenging in Deis schools – those in more disadvantaged areas – where up to half of children require additional supports.
Often, he says, schools are forced to hire teachers who are not trained to teach in primary settings. “It can be a real challenge integrating them into staff ... and ensuring they know what’s expected of them and meet the standard required.”
A new survey of primary schools by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, in partnership with school managers and principals, indicates there are almost 1,000 vacancies across primary schools. School leaders expect the problem will get worse before it gets better.
The problems are most acute in greater Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare, where more than half of schools reported unfilled teaching posts.
Minister for Education Norma Foley has pointed to record numbers of registered teachers and measures such as teacher substitute panels.
McCarthy acknowledges this progress, but says policymakers will need to address the fact that living in Dublin is more expensive and making teachers worse off. He says either a city allowance or rental credit for critical public sector workers could address these issues. Otherwise, the problems will keep reoccurring.
“It’s very frustrating,” he says. “This isn’t a one-year problem. It’s been going on for a number of years now.”
