Eight out of 10 part-time and temporary secondary school teachers want permanent full-time jobs, according to a union survey. Some 90 per cent are unhappy with their employment status and many have a "worrying" lack of knowledge about their employment rights, according to ASTI, which conducted the survey.
Mr George O'Callaghan, of the Catholic Secondary Schools Managers Association, said few secondary teachers were of retirement age, so new permanent posts were not opening up and those that were being created were being soaked up by special needs teachers.
The survey was conducted by ASTI in response to its members' concerns that many schools are reliant on part-time and temporary teachers. Some 80 per cent of these teachers are women under the age of 35 and the majority teach in voluntary secondary schools.
The smaller the school, the more part-time and temporary teachers it has. In some small schools as many as 50 per cent of teachers are not permanent.
In schools with less than 20 teachers on the staff, 54 per cent had between one and five non-permanent teachers and 32 per cent had six to 10. Over half of respondents - 53 per cent - were eligible part-time teachers, 29 per cent were temporary whole-time teachers and 16 per cent were casual part-time teachers.
However, in their original responses, over 81 per cent were unable to indicate their employment status.
Re-coding of their comments under "other" demonstrated a worrying lack of knowledge among NPT teachers as regards their contractual position and rights, ASTI said.