Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 October 2021
220. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Education if her attention has been drawn to matters raised in correspondence by the principal of a school (details supplied) regarding the shortage of available substitute teachers; if she has engaged with the management of the school; the steps she is taking to address these shortages; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51840/21]
View answerA range of measures have been put in place to provide enhanced substitute cover in the context of Covid-19. These include a major expansion of the Primary Schools Substitute Teacher Supply Panels, which now employ almost 380 teachers and provide substitute cover to over 2,500 primary schools across the country. Further work is underway to ascertain if there are ways the operation of the panels can be enhanced to help with substitute teacher supply.
The Supply Panels work alongside the existing methods of sourcing substitute teachers, such as the national substitution portal service Sub Seeker, operated by the Irish Primary Principals Network and developed in accordance with my Department's Teacher Supply Action Plan. Schools can also make local arrangements to have their own regular substitutes to call on if needed.
Measures are also underway to raise awareness of the availability of substitute work in schools. There are over 111, 000 teachers on the Teaching Council register each of whom has been emailed directly by the Council to raise awareness to the current teacher substitute challenges and where possible to make themselves available, through Sub Seeker, for substitute work
My Department has also adjusted its payroll operational arrangements so that the restriction on the number of days that teachers on career break may be employed as substitutes has been suspended and teachers who are job sharing are allowed to work additional hours.
My Department and the Teaching Council are also planning to meet with the providers of primary initial teacher education (ITE) in the coming days to explore how flexibility in ITE programme delivery could facilitate additional substitute supply.
My Department is engaging on an ongoing basis with stakeholders to analyse the demand for substitution and to identify means to improve the availability of substitutes at this time.
My Department has received correspondence in relation to these matters from the principal of the school to which the Deputy refers and a response will issue directly to the principal.
