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Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 November 2021

Tuesday, 23 November 2021

Questions (92)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin

Question:

92. Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin asked the Minister for Education the mechanism that has been put in place for schools to report failures to secure substitute teachers to teach replacement hours; if an analysis has been carried out as to the profile of the problem analysing along secondary primary, subject matter and geographical location; and the measures she plans to take to address the shortages. [57179/21]

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Written answers

The recruitment and appointment of teachers to fill teaching posts is a matter for the individual school authority, subject to procedures agreed under Section 24 of the Education Act 1998 (as amended by the Education (Amendment) Act 2012).

In accordance with Department Circulars 0044/2019 and 31/2011, schools are required to employ appropriately qualified and registered teachers and ensure that unemployed teachers should be offered employment in preference to those who have retired.

My Department is aware of the challenges in some schools in recruiting substitute teachers and a range of measures are in place to provide enhanced substitute cover in this context .

Measures include a major expansion of the primary substitute teacher supply panels, which now employ almost 380 teachers and provide substitute cover to over 2,500 primary schools across the country. A review of the supply panels has taken place and approximately 100 additional teachers are being added to existing/new areas where significant challenges have been demonstrated in sourcing substitution. Posts have been allocated to the base schools to allow arrangements for the recruitment of these additional staff.

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.

In addition to the expansion of the supply panels, schools with teaching principals have also been asked to cluster their allocation of principal release days to form a full-time fixed-term post to minimise the requirement for substitute teachers.

For the current school year, changes have been made to the career break scheme to permit teachers on career break to carry out unlimited substitute work. Changes have also been made to the job sharing scheme to permit job sharing teachers carry out substitute work on the days they are rostered off, in their own or in other schools.

The Teaching Council has undertaken a communications campaign to contact the over 111,000 teachers on its register to raise awareness to the current teacher substitute challenges and to ask available teachers to register with Sub Seeker, so that their availability is known to schools seeking subs.

The Council and my Department have also engaged with higher education institutions, who have been requested to bring flexibility to programme delivery to enhance the availability of PME student teachers to undertake substitute work. PME students have also been advised to register with the Teaching Council and to register with Sub Seeker . My Department is continuing its engagement with education stakeholders to identify solutions to the current challenges in recruiting substitute teachers.

My Department is currently, with the support of the post-primary management bodies, conducting an on-line survey of post-primary schools to collect information on challenges faced by schools in recruiting teachers on a subject level basis. The survey is also collecting data on subjects for which a schools was unable to recruit a substitute teacher qualified to teach the subject.

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