School withdraws JobBridge advertisements following backlash

A private school that advertised for two teachers through the JobBridge internship scheme has withdrawn the notices due to a “groundswell of opposition” it faced.

It was reported on Monday that almost 100 jobs in the education sector were being advertised under the scheme ahead of the start of the school year. This was despite criticism of such employment practices from Government Ministers and trade unions.

Headfort School in Kells, Co Meath, a primary school that charges day pupils under 10 €2,732 a term, day pupils over 10 €3,365 a term, boarders under 10 €4,380 a term and boarders over 10 €5,425 a term, advertised on JobBridge for an “Irish language/sports teacher” to take on 40 hours per week for nine months.

The ad said the “intern” would gain “practical experience in a private primary school setting in how teachers plan and deliver structured lesson programmes in the Irish language, and in how to run an active sports programme”.

The second advertisement, for a “European languages/ sports teacher”, involved the same working hours and job description except with a focus on French or Spanish.

School principal Dermot Dix said he had posted the advertisements without conducting enough research on the scheme.

“I kind of wandered into it without thinking enough and without researching JobBridge enough,” he said. “I’ve decided to withdraw the listings. I definitely don’t want to exploit people or make people think we’re exploiting people. I’m definitely not in the market for hiring teachers that way.

“The idea of getting some young people in for a bit of experience for a short amount of time, and then of course contributing to the school life, sounded good . . . But I did some more research and found there was clearly quite a storm of protest about it. Some people contacted me and I did some reading about it, and clearly there was so much of a groundswell of opposition that I decided to shelve it,” he said.

He said the school was “not recruiting anyway” and there were no vacancies as such.