FINE GAEL has accused the Government of removing qualified teachers from the classroom – even though hundreds of unqualified staff are currently still teaching.
The charge was made as the Department of Education formally confirmed that class size will increase from next September.
The department yesterday published the staffing schedule for primary schools which sets out the number of teachers each school will have in September.
Responding to the Fine Gael charge, a spokesman for the Minister said boards of management should “review the use of unqualified personnel”.
The INTO said the cut in class size will come as a hammer blow to hundreds of primary schools all over the country.
A Dáil question by Fine Gael’s education spokesman Brian Hayes uncovered that 430 unqualified staff are still teaching in primary school classrooms. The number of unqualified staff at second level is unknown.
Mr Hayes said yesterday that the Minister’s decision to increase class sizes and cut teacher 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”.
The Minister, he said, has “not put forward a plan to ensure that every child is taught by a fully qualified person yet publishes a departmental circular that confirms teaching numbers will be cut from September. It is ridiculous that Minister Batt O’Keeffe is so intent on removing qualified teachers when so many unqualified staff are still in the classroom”.
In a statement, the Minister’s spokesman said: “Boards of management are reminded of their obligation to recruit fully qualified primary school teachers for any vacancy in the school regardless of the duration of the vacancy.
“In this regard, a board should review any current arrangement whereby a person who is not qualified as a primary school teacher is employed in a teaching post in the school.”
In his written answer to the Dáil question, Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe said the recruitment and appointment of teachers to fill vacancies in an individual school is a matter for the board of management of the school concerned.
“It is the policy of my 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.”
Yesterday, INTO general secretary John Carr said hundreds of teachers will lose their jobs as a result of the decision to raise class size. He said many of these teachers could face unemployment as they will not have the right to be redeployed.
In addition, hundreds of teachers who qualify this summer will face unemployment because of the scarcity of teaching jobs.
“By this decision, Government will add a significant number to the already unprecedented unemployment figures. Given that Ireland already has the second-highest class sizes in the EU, this decision is a national disgrace.”
“Class sizes could be reduced in Ireland for a fraction of the money being used to bail out the banks,” said Mr Carr.
