Many of our students are sitting in classes at second level without a teacher or professional qualified to teach that subject.
This is not the warning of principals, teachers’ unions or vested interests but the findings of an internal Department of Education report on staff shortages at post-primary level.
The draft study indicates that there were about 1,200 teaching posts at second level which were either unfilled or occupied by teachers not qualified to teach the subject they were tasked with teaching during the last academic year.
It also shows that teacher shortages are concentrated in key subjects. Teachers are hardest to find, for example, in maths, Irish, home economics as well career guidance, English, PE and European languages.
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What the report does not shed light on is the impact these shortages are having on students.
We know, however, that some pupils have been unable to pursue their passions as a result of schools having to drop subjects, especially in areas such as woodwork, engineering and construction.
Others are undoubtedly failing to reach their potential in subjects such as maths, Irish and other subjects as a result of being taught by “out of field” teachers.
No one can say we were not warned.
[ Hundreds of vacant posts at secondary schools, Department of Education report finds ]
In the early 1990s, an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development review of Irish education found that the practice of assigning “out of field” teachers to teach subjects they were not qualified for was a “constraint on true professionalism”.
More than a decade ago, in 2012, the Sahlberg report highlighted the issue of teacher supply as a potential weakness in our education system and called for the urgent development of a more effective model of supply.
It took years for the system to begin to take steps to try to tackle the problem while the difficulties mounted in the background.
In recent times, there have been moves to encourage retired staff back into the classroom, ease job restrictions for those on job shares or career breaks and provide upskilling or additional spaces on initial teacher education courses.
The most recent attempt to tackle the problem is a (taxable) €2,000 incentive payment for newly qualified teachers who take up full-time jobs this year.
In reality, most of these sticking plaster solutions, on their own, have shown little sign of getting to the root of the problem. The fact that teacher shortages are most acute in the capital provides further evidence that the housing crisis is key to the problem.
It seems likely that much more ambitious whole-of-government solutions will be needed, such as affordable accommodation for critical public sector workers or a “Dublin weighting” allowance.
But there are some hopeful signs. Comparing the results with a similar study in 2021-22, the report said the situation has “improved”, however, the highest ranking subjects with unmet demand remained consistent across the subdues, indicating that “challenges recruiting qualified teachers may be more persistent” rather than isolated to a school year.
Demographic trends also mean pupil numbers at second level are set to decline over the coming years, which may ease the problem.
However, a lack of affordable accommodation and cost-of-living pressures means that pressure on schools to find qualified teachers is unlikely to ease significantly any time soon.
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