The Government will take qualified teachers out of classrooms from next September despite the fact that some 400 unqualified staff are still teaching in primary schools, Fine Gael has claimed.
Education spokesman Brian Hayes said figures published today by the Department of Education confirmed plans to cut the number of teachers.
The Department published its "staffing schedule", which governs the number of teachers each school is entitled to based on the number of pupils it has enrolled.
“The Minister’s decision to increase class sizes and cut teaching numbers was an attack on children and this has been compounded by his inability to put in place a structure to get unqualified teachers out of the classroom,” Mr Hayes said.
He said an answer to a parliamentary question submitted by him last week revealed that 400 unqualified teachers work in primary schools with the number at second level “unknown”.
“Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe has not put forward a plan to ensure that every child is taught by a fully qualified person yet today he published a departmental circular that confirms teaching numbers will be cut from September,” he said.
Mr Hayes said it was “ridiculous” that the Minister was “so intent on removing qualified teachers when so many unqualified staff are still in the classroom”.
The Minister told Mr Hayes in his answer to the parliamentary question last week that the recruitment and appointment of teachers to fill vacancies in an individual school was a matter for the board of management.
He said it was the policy of his department that unqualified personnel “should only be employed in exceptional circumstances and when all avenues for recruiting qualified personnel have been exhausted”.
“Unqualified personnel should therefore only be employed for short periods pending the recruitment of a fully qualified teacher.”
New regulations to be signed by the Minister shortly will allow schools to employ unregistered personnel on a time-limited basis in “extreme circumstances”, he said.
About 430 people who are not qualified as primary teachers are currently employed in teaching posts, but this may include some new teachers who are awaiting recognition of their qualifications.
The number of untrained post-primary teachers is currently being compiled, Mr O’Keeffe said.