Recruiting and retaining teachers: Department of Education could act on existing report

Sir, – With schools due to reopen shortly, school principals are facing into yet another year marked by acute difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers.

In June, the Department of Education and Youth published a tender seeking the services of a suitably qualified organisation to assist it with policy formation in the area of school workforce planning.

Specifically, the task was to carry out a “rapid literature review” of international approaches to the issue across no fewer than six jurisdictions. Ordinarily, a move by the department to learn lessons from abroad would be a welcome development, but in this instance some might reasonably question whether a review is what is now required.

It is 14 years since the Sahlberg Report (2012) recommended that more effective modelling of the supply and demand for new teachers should be developed “as a matter of urgency”. In such circumstances, should the priority now not be action on recommendations made more than a decade ago? – Yours, etc,