INTO demands talks over teacher shortages

The President of the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO), Mr Gerry Malone, today demanded talks with the Department of Education about teacher shortages.

Addressing teachers in Co Longford, Mr Malone said every day thousands of Irish primary school pupils do not have a teacher in their class.

It is a national disgrace that pupils are deprived of the most basic, the most valuable resource of all – a fully qualified teacher in each classroom The President of the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO), Mr Gerry Malone

"It is a national disgrace that pupils are deprived of the most basic, the most valuable resource of all – a fully qualified teacher in each classroom," he said.

Mr Malone said that successive Government’s have turned a deaf ear to warnings that teacher shortages would arise.

"But not only have politicians and Department officials not made sure that Ireland can produce enough qualified teachers to staff Irish classrooms, they have failed to respond to calls for other ways to remedy teacher shortages," said the INTO head.

Calling for an end to "official indifference" to the needs of pupils, Mr Malone called for urgent talks with the Department of Education to discuss a range of possible solutions to the problem, including:

• an immediate increased intake into the colleges of education;

• an accelerated training course for qualified post-primary teachers;

• conversion courses for three year trained Montessori teachers;

• continuing recruitment of teachers from Northern Ireland and abroad on a provisional recognition basis; and

• the provision of accelerated Irish qualification for Northern Ireland trained teachers.

Mr Malone finished his address by saying that a fully trained and qualified primary teacher is not a luxury or an optional extra in the education system. "Quality primary education is a basic entitlement – an opportunity that comes but once to a child," he said.