None of us should be surprised at the crisis that has arisen in the primary school sector in respect of providing enough teachers to teach in our schools. The situation has reached epidemic proportions over the last 12 months and schools in disadvantaged areas are now crying out for teachers. This should become the priority issue for the Minister for Education and Science.
Despite the fact that the recruitment problem in schools was signposted as a major difficulty ten years ago, almost no work has taken place in the Department of Education and Science to respond to this crisis. The increasing intake of students into the primary sector over the last ten years has not been met with a radical increase in the number of primary school teachers coming into the school system. We have not learned the lesson of considerable demographic change that has occurred in recent years. This issue can no longer be ignored and I call on the Minister for Education and Science to take an initiative and stem the haemorrhage of teachers from schools.
School principals, boards of management and teacher representatives want action from the Government to ensure that every child's right to a basic education can be vindicated. The following example of a school in a disadvantaged community highlights the extent of the problem. St. Thomas's school in Jobstown, Tallaght, has a total teacher allocation of 32 full-time teachers. Despite this allocation, the school has been unable to attract a full complement of teachers in each of the past three years. There are currently 25 qualified teachers, five untrained teachers and two unfilled positions in the school.
Since Christmas, it has advertised for teachers on two separate occasions without receiving even one reply. Since February 1999, 23 qualified teachers have left the school to move to other schools or to change their profession entirely. The experience of this school is not dissimilar to many other schools in what can be described as disadvantaged communities. I accept that the problem of attracting and keeping primary school teachers in schools is not exclusive to communities where there is a high ratio of low income families. However, regardless of whether a school is in a disadvantaged area, it is not acceptable that unqualified substitute teachers can represent an increasing proportion of the total teaching staff.
A special package of measures should be introduced for teachers who are working in some of the most deprived communities in the country. Specifically, I call on the Department of Education and Science to provide a special allowance for teachers who teach in disadvantaged communities. This principle is already established in respect of the island allowance, which is a designated financial incentive to teachers who teach on our islands. If a special case can be made for island communities, it should be also made for disadvantaged areas.
The Department should give some recognition to teachers who continue teaching in a disadvantaged school for a continuous five year period. I would not oppose a measure that would give such teachers half a year's unpaid leave as a way of recognising the huge pressures they face in their daily work. Teachers in these and other communities frequently act as tutor, parent, social worker and adviser and their role must be recognised.
The Department must show more flexibility in the application of general rules to schools in disadvantaged communities. The status of a disadvantaged school is now spread so thinly on the ground that it is impossible to indicate any improvement in resources. Has the special committee on schools in disadvantaged communities, as set out in the Education Act, been established by the Department? It is time to recognise that the exodus of teachers who work in schools in deprived communities should be responded to in the form of a Government initiative. This problem will not go away and some of the proposals I have outlined could help in the ongoing battle to staff schools with well qualified and motivated school teachers.