175 surplus teachers costing the State €11m

POST-PRIMARY schools are employing 175 surplus teachers at a cost of more than €11 million because they cannot be redeployed to other schools.

A spokesman for the Department of Education said falling pupil numbers was the main cause for these surplus positions, known as supernumerary posts.

“Teachers are employed under permanent contracts, and when pupil numbers drop the teachers remain due to the absence of a successful redeployment scheme at second-level,” he said.

According to the department, voluntary secondary schools have 165 teaching posts above their quota in the current academic year, while community and comprehensive schools have more than 10 such posts.

There are no supernumerary posts in the VEC sector.

In primary schools, just two teachers are over-quota.

The department said the cost of employing the 175 second-level teachers over-quota in the current academic year would be approximately €11.2 million, including employers’ PRSI costs.

There has been a reduction in the number of over-quota teachers in recent years with 184 surplus posts in the 2007/2008 academic year, costing €11.78 million, and 231 posts in the 2006/2007 academic year, costing about €14.3 million.

The department is in the early stage of talks with schools and unions to agree a redeployment programme for surplus teachers. The Teachers’ Conciliation Council has already agreed a redeployment plan for teachers affected by school closures.

Figures provided by the department show that St Joseph’s college in Borrisoleigh, Co Tipperary, have almost nine surplus teaching posts this year, while Scoil Áine, Kylemore Abbey, has 6.68 whole-time equivalent posts.

St David’s co-educational school in Greystones has 6.5 such posts.

The 175 posts are spread among 88 schools around the State.

The Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI) said the number of over-quota teachers was quite low when the total number of teachers was considered.

Diarmaid de Paor, the ASTI deputy general secretary, said 175 over-quota teachers out of about 24,000 “doesn’t strike me as being a massive problem”.

He said teacher allocations changed as demographics shifted, and it was difficult to achieve the perfect match of pupils and teachers every year.

He said while a school may have a number of surplus teachers, it was not a case of pointing to a teacher and saying they were over- quota and there was no work for them.

The school continued to draw up timetables using the teachers available, he added.

“It’s not a case that teachers are sitting around in the staff room drinking cups of coffee all day.”