The move by Government to cut the amount of time new teachers must work before securing permanent contracts is welcome, but other measures are required to address the ongoing recruitment and retention crisis in secondary education, delegates at the Teachers Union of Ireland conference in Wexford were told on Tuesday.
General secretary Michael Gillespie said widespread staff shortages were being fuelled by the difficulties being experienced attracting young teachers in the face of competition from overseas but also by resignations and early retirements, many of which, he said, are being prompted by the stress of the work.
“This is a crisis of the Government’s own making,” Mr Gillespie told delegates. “It is the inevitable result of repeated decisions to force the education system to do more with fewer resources.”
He said schools need to be better resourced in order to attract new teachers and offer them clear career pathways, while specific measures are required, he said, to appeal to the large numbers of young teachers working in places such as Dubai and Australia, “starting with recognition of teaching service overseas”.
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“We welcome the recent decision to allow teachers to gain permanent contracts one year earlier,” he said, describing it as “a positive move”. However, he added, “it is not enough”.
The move on permanent contracts was something the union had been pushing for, although it wants permanent jobs offered from day one, he added.
The Government now needs to act on other suggestions, including a reduction in the Professional Master of Education course from two years to one, and the restoration of abolished allowances for teachers working in special education, through Irish or on the islands, Mr Gillespie said.
While recruitment needs to be a greater priority, he insisted, there is also a growing problem with retention, as a growing number of teachers resign or take early retirement due to the growing levels of work-related stress.
Excessive workload and work intensification are “breaking” the teaching profession, he said.
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“Across every sector of education, our members repeatedly raise the alarm: there is an ever-increasing workload and never enough time,” he said. The “spiral is unsustainable. It is becoming a serious health and wellbeing crisis. Burnout is real and impacting our profession.”
Research carried out by DCU found 85 per cent of teachers experienced high levels of work-related burnout, while half that many, 42 per cent, said they are likely to leave the profession early because of the issue.
He said teachers were struggling with the same wider social issues as those working in every other sector of the economy, but were also having to cope with “change overload” caused by emerging technologies, curriculum overload and endless new initiatives. “And we are doing all this with the largest class sizes in Europe.”
Addressing the conference later on Tuesday, Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless said Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) and the Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) had not been forgotten about by Government despite the two institutes not yet becoming part of a larger third-level establishment.
The Department of Further and Higher Education, he said, “will continue to support the provision of significant financial and expert guidance to DkIT and IADT as they pursue their strategic plans in the coming years.
“However, it is not the role of any Minister to direct an institution to follow a particular path.”
