asked the Minister for Education if he will state (i) the number of (a) men and (b) women now employed as untrained assistant primary teachers, and if he can now assure Dáil Éireann that the policy of appointing junior assistant mistresses and untrained teachers will be discontinued and that only fully qualified teachers will, in future, be appointed; and (ii) whether he will arrange that all existing untrained assistants and junior assistant mistresses with ten or more years' service will be placed on the trained teacher's scale.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Appointment of Teachers.
The numbers of (a) men and (b) women employed on the 30th June, 1948, as untrained assistant primary teachers were 34 and 484 respectively. Under existing regulations, untrained lay persons cannot be permanently appointed as assistant teachers, but it becomes necessary from time to time to recognise untrained lay teachers as principal teachers of small schools in very remote areas. The question of discontinuing the appointment of untrained persons as junior assistant mistresses in charge of the junior pupils in the smaller schools, and the introduction of a new class of trained teacher to be known as junior assistant teacher for these classes, is at present under consideration in my Department.
I can assure the Deputy that it is the policy of my Department that, as far as circumstances permit, all teachers permanently appointed in national schools shall be trained.
(ii) With regard to the last part of the Deputy's question, as to whether I will arrange that all existing untrained assistants and junior mistresses with ten or more years' services will be placed on the trained teachers' scale, this proposal would raise important issues of policy and finance with which I am not at present in a position to deal. The whole question of the salaries of national teachers is at present the subject of examination by the representative committee which I set up recently and I would not, therefore, think this a suitable time to consider a matter involving such a major departure from long-standing policy.