More than 4,600 Irish teachers are estimated to be working abroad at a time of acute staff shortages in many schools, according to an unpublished study by education authorities.
The research, the first official effort to quantify the number of teachers who have emigrated, is a joint project between the Central Statistics Office, the Department of Education and the Teaching Council.
The number of teachers abroad is likely to spark calls for more to be done to incentivise them to return home or help to prevent young teaching graduates from moving abroad in the first place.
Education authorities, however, say teachers based abroad account for just 4 per cent of the 123,000-plus registered with the Teaching Council.
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The Irish Times has established that a Teaching Council Register Analysis found that 4,672 registered teachers – 1,792 primary and 2,169 second-level – are not economically active or in receipt of social welfare and assumed to be residing abroad. About 60 per cent of these teachers are aged between 25-34. The study is based on data obtained in September 2023.
The fact that those identified in the study continue to maintain their registration with the Teaching Council – at a cost of €65 a year – indicates they intend to return to teach in Ireland.
Principals say teacher shortages are posing a considerable challenge for many schools, especially in the Greater Dublin Area, where rents are higher and housing is in short supply.
At second level, some schools report that they have had to narrow subject choice or rely on more “out-of-field” teachers, while at primary level many say they are struggling to find substitutes and end up redeploying special needs staff to teach mainstream classes.
A spokesman for the Department of Education confirmed the findings of the analysis but said there are now “more teachers than ever working in the Irish education system”.
He said there has “always been a desire among some young teachers to gain experience abroad before returning home”, and further research will be carried out to establish the length of time they are spending abroad and how long before they return to teach in Irish schools.
However, the general secretary of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland, Michael Gillespie, said there was an urgent need to recognise the service of Irish teachers returning from places such as Dubai and Australia with “incremental credit”, or pay increases in recognition of their service.
At present, second-level teachers returning from positions in private schools outside the EU are placed on the lowest point of the teachers’ salary scale here despite their experience abroad.
“Second-level schools across the country are experiencing unprecedented struggles in putting teachers in front of classes, yet the Department [of Education] still refuses to properly facilitate a highly qualified and significantly experienced cohort in returning to Irish schools,” Mr Gillespie said.
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“These dedicated professionals have honed their skills in diverse environments, gaining a wealth of relevant knowledge and an international perspective. Now more than ever, we need to dismantle the barriers and deterrents that are preventing them from returning home.”
A Department of Education spokesman said primary teachers may be eligible for incremental credit for working in a school in an EU country or a non-EU country, while post-primary teachers may be eligible, having worked in a school in an EU country.
They may also be eligible for incremental credit for experience gained in a publicly funded school in a non-EU country but not for working in a private school in a non-EU country.
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