Sir, – The Leaving Certificate media hype is in full swing, with exam papers being intensively analysed and commented upon daily.
However, there is an even more pressing issue this month for secondary schools which is noticeably absent from the headlines. Schools in our cities are currently advertising full-time roles for the coming academic year 2023/24 for teachers of maths, physics, chemistry, computer science, home economics, Spanish, French and Irish. They might interview one applicant if they are lucky. Many will have to readvertise later on this summer if they have failed to get even one applicant, or if their one candidate cannot find affordable accommodation in the same city and has to decline the job offer.
This issue would seem worthy of a few lines in the media now while it is playing out in schools, as opposed to the usual reactive headlines which will appear when the media and public remember in September once again that there isn’t anyone to prepare the students for the very exams which they seem to consider so important. – Yours, etc,
SINÉAD O’LOGHLIN,
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Head of Spanish
Department,
Sandford Park School,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.
A chara, – David McWilliams outlined the extent to which the economies of the North and South are gradually integrating and how talent could be further attracted from one side of the Border to the other (“The economies of North and South are slowly integrating”, Opinion & Analysis, June 10th). In his discussion of the economic data, he may also have inadvertently hit upon a possible solution to some of the current woes in the education sector also. I am involved in a Higher Education Authority-funded project which, among other objectives, aims to create teaching materials suitable for the second-level curriculums both North and South. In my meetings with teachers North of the Border, I have been struck by how committed and dedicated they are to their subject areas, in large part due to the specialism required to teach subjects at A-level. It occurred to me that a targeted recruitment and information campaign aimed at this highly trained pool of teachers could help to alleviate some of the extreme pressure the second-level teacher shortage is causing in this jurisdiction. There will be some qualification equivalences to work out, but this is not an insurmountable issue.
In addition, I believe some of the conditions of employment are more favourable in the Republic and might serve as an inducement.
In short, if I could give Minister for Education Norma Foley a tip for helping to solve the teacher shortage at second level, it would be to look North! – Is mise,
Dr CAITRÍONA Ó DOCHARTAIGH,
Department of Early
and Medieval Irish,
University College Cork.