Second-level students are continuing to miss out on subjects they should be able to study because of the abject failure of this Government to address the ongoing teacher recruitment crisis in Ireland.
As remarkable as it might seem, putting teachers in front of classrooms and keeping them there remains a significant challenge in second-level schools in 2026.
This is one of the key themes due to be discussed at the annual Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) conference which starts in Co Kilkenny on Tuesday.
The TUI represents 22,000 educators in second-level schools, third-level colleges and in centres of further education and training.
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The findings of a survey carried out by our principals’ association released last month illustrate that schools are still struggling with unprecedented recruitment and retention challenges. Three out of every four schools advertised positions in the previous six months for which no teacher applied.
About 60 per cent had unfilled vacancies due to recruitment and retention difficulties, while even more alarmingly, almost one-in-five (19 per cent) had been forced to drop subjects.
The national accommodation emergency is an obvious driving factor, but there are concrete sector-specific measures open to our policymakers that would greatly alleviate the current problems.
New teachers need immediate access to full-time jobs. Also required are enhanced career progression options, a halving of the duration of the two-year Professional Master of Education (PME) required to teach at second level to make the profession more affordable to pursue and full incremental credit for experience gained abroad for those teachers who wish to return to teach in Ireland.
In terms of teacher retention, which is now as great a challenge as teacher recruitment, an overarching requirement is a reduction in the unsustainable workload and work intensification, much of it bureaucratic, that is driving many from the profession to other employments where they feel better valued.
Another theme due to come up this week is the legacy of third-level underfunding.
Among our members working in higher and third-level education we are seeing increased use of short-term, precarious contracts.
The student-lecturer ratio is much higher than the OECD average, resulting in less attention and supports for our students and unmanageable workload for academic staff.
This is an ongoing indictment of the political refusal to address the sector’s funding crisis, which has resulted in larger class sizes and less access to equipment, laboratories, tutorials, materials and libraries.
We are also gravely concerned by recent cuts to English for Speakers of other Languages Programme (ESOL) and adult literacy programmes around the country as a result of a reduction in budget to Education and Training Boards (ETBs).
These unacceptable and shortsighted cuts have come as a complete shock to all affected, including the often-vulnerable learners they support through literacy programmes, second chance education options and critical service to those for whom English is not their first language.
Urgent engagement on this matter is required.
We must also optimise the potential benefits and protect against the risks that Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents to the education system. Crucially, every effort must be made to ensure that it does not become a substitute for the critical thinking skills of students, and any material generated by AI must always be quoted by students as such.
Overall, it is critical that places of education are appropriately resourced with the tools, infrastructure and staffing time required to engage meaningfully with it. Key to this is a national professional development programme providing specialist AI training for teachers. We need a regulated, equitable and coherent national approach so that all teachers and students are prepared for this significant technological shift. No student should be left at a disadvantage in any new education landscape.
In 2025, TUI members voted in favour of a package of measures to support the implementation of the redeveloped Senior Cycle. Members were not voting on the actual curriculum, which the Minister has the power to prescribe under the Education Act, and which other stakeholders have no veto over. We will insist that the Department of Education must keep its side of the bargain by honouring every element of the agreement.
For too long now, Ireland’s spend on education as a proportion of GDP compared to other countries has been unacceptably low.
We have made clear that significant additional resourcing is key to ensuring that all second-level schools have access to the required facilities to ensure a level playing field in terms of Additional Assessment Components (AACs) that form such a significant element of the redeveloped programme.
The Leaving Certificate’s integrity and standing must be upheld. The revised programme must not actually increase the pressure on students or the already excessive workload of teachers.
We will engage respectfully with Minister Hildegarde Naughton and Fianna Fáil TD James Lawless when they visit our annual conference this week in Kilkenny.
In my response to both as TUI President from the podium, I will strongly urge them as Government representatives to provide the resources required to ensure that teaching and lecturing remains an attractive profession and that every student has equal access to a high quality and appropriately resourced education service.
- Anthony Quinn is TUI president. The 2026 Teachers’ Union of Ireland annual congress takes place between Tuesday, April 7th and Thursday, April 9th in Kilkenny
