Sir, - In view of the crisis caused by the unavailability of qualified primary teachers, may I take the opportunity to highlight the fact that a crisis of reverse proportions currently exists in secondary education. Approximately 1,000 qualified secondary teachers with at least two years' teaching experience seek meaningful and permanent employment. These teachers, who were trained largely at the taxpayers' expense, now languish on what is called the supplementary panel.
Surely these complementary problems could be quickly resolved to the benefit of parents, students and teachers by a gesture of co-operation from the relevant unions that would allow a proportion of secondary teachers to enter primary teaching - possibly on a once-off basis. Although this might cause a temporary loss of revenue and voting power to a particular union, I am confident that the educational interests of students coupled with the employment concerns of "surplus" teachers should over-ride such considerations. Failure to act would, I suggest, be almost reprehensible. - Yours, etc.,
Brian McCarthy
Dublin 14.