There is a chronic shortage of teachers available to do substitute work in primary schools, according to the INTO. Primary teachers are now being forced to use retired and in some cases unqualified teachers to take their classes, the union says. In certain schools, the Department has sanctioned the use of non-qualified teachers. Browns Grove National School, five miles from Tuam, Co Galway, has failed to find a suitable teacher to stand in for Brian Hynes, in-coming president of the INTO, who will be out on union business for the next 16 months. The school advertised in the national press in December. "We were aiming to have it filled by early January," Hynes says. "Not one person applied." The school has found a retired teacher to stand in for the moment, and plans to advertise again. Margaret Condon, principal of St Michael's Primary School, Ballyfermot, Dublin, is equally under pressure to find substitute teachers. "I've been trying to get a temporary teacher since early December. All of last year and for some of the year before it's been chronic." In another Dublin school, the principal has had to employ a nonqualified person . "I have a competent, caring, mature person but she's not a qualified primary teacher," she explains. "I was surprised that the Department would sanction an unqualified person. I feel dishonest over this in terms of the partnership with the parents." Brid Boggs is principal of Scoil Treasa Naofa in Malin, Co Donegal. "The last time we were able to get our hands on a qualified substitute teacher was seven years ago," she says. "At the moment there's no such thing as a panel.
"It causes an awful lot of stress," she continues. "Parents are not happy with the situation. Teachers are definitely not happy with it - it puts them under a lot of stress and pressure. Teachers go back to work even when they don't feel too well. They don't want to put the added burden on the staff."
The Minister for Education and Science, Micheal Martin, accepts that the supply of teachers has reduced in recent years. However, Martin says this is because 800 to 900 teachers are availing of career breaks and job-sharing schemes. Also the introduction of an early retirement package and the opportunity to retire after 35 years' service have had an effect.
He told the Seanad this month that he authorised an increased teacher-training intake last summer of 200 students per year.He also cited a new scheme that operates, he said, "on the basis of a host school employing permanent teachers to perform substitute cover for a range of schools within close proximity of the host school".
