Poor planning by the Department of Education and Science in the face of an upturn in the birth rate has led to a serious shortage of primary teachers, the Irish National Teachers Organisation has said.
"It is a fact that while the supply of teachers is falling the numbers of pupils have begun to rise again. It is also a fact that the pupil numbers predicted by the Department are underestimated by several thousand each year," said the INTO's general secretary, Senator Joe O'Toole, yesterday.
He forecast that unless the Minister for Education took immediate decisions the pupil-teacher ratio in Irish primary schools, which already have the largest class sizes in Europe, would worsen further over the next five years.
The INTO has asked the Minister to reduce the average class size by one pupil per year over the next five years, and to increase the numbers of remedial teachers, administrative principals and substitute teachers. Mr O'Toole estimated that 4,200 extra teachers would be needed over the next five years.
"When will the Department notice that, with an increased birthrate, increased immigration and a third of Irish primary schools increasing their enrolment last year, there is no longer any such thing as a `demographic dividend', allowing a redistribution of excess teachers in the system?"
Mr O'Toole said the birthrate was increasing at a time when all the prognoses were pointing to a further decrease.
"The Department has planned on the basis of an average birthrate of 46,000 per year for the years 1996 to 2000. In fact for the years 1996 and 1997 the figures were over 50,000 and over 53,000 respectively, and there is no indication of any downward trend over the next two years. In addition, with the marriage rate also increasing for the first time for many years the probability is that births will increase further," he said.
"It is both reasonable and conservative to speculate that the schools will shortly be coping with an extra and unexpected 5,000 pupils per year. Based on the current pupil-teacher ratio this could require an additional 200 teachers per year just to protect current class sizes."
Mr O'Toole also estimated that another 7,500 children of immigrant or returning parents were coming into the education system every year. On the assumption that two-thirds of these come into the primary sector, he said, yet another 250 teachers would be required.
At the same time the number of teachers reaching compulsory retirement age had risen from 141 in 1994 to 295 this year, said the INTO secretary. Over the next 51/2 years over 2,300 teachers would leave the profession through retirement.
Mr O'Toole said a recent INTO study had shown scores of schools unable to find qualified teachers for permanent positions and hundreds unable to find temporary substitutes; remedial teachers trying to deal with up to 10 primary schools each; over 900 schools without access to remedial teachers; and more than 200,000 pupils in classes of over 30.
"Primary education is now faced with the huge problem of the daily lack of qualified substitute teachers in almost every part of the country," he went on. As a result, they were being forced as a last resort to employ unqualified personnel to look after pupils when the class teacher was legitimately absent.
A Department of Education spokesman said yesterday the Government had already responded to many of the INTO's pre-election priorities and demands, for example by increasing spending on primary education by 9 per cent in its first year when overall spending was limited to 4 per cent.