Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 October 2023
4. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Education to outline the actions being undertaken by her Department to tackle teacher shortages and ensure that teachers remain in the profession, and to attract new teachers to posts in primary and secondary schools. [45381/23]
View answerWhat is the Minister for Education doing to address the teacher shortage crisis in our schools, to attract new teachers into the profession, and also to retain the teachers we have currently?
Ensuring that every child's experience in school is positive and that they have qualified, engaged teachers available to support them in their learning is a priority area of action for the Government. Budget 2024 contains a range of measures that demonstrate the commitment to continued investment in our education system. In addition to numerous actions taken in recent years to address teacher supply, a number of specific, targeted measures will be introduced with the new funding provided in budget 2024. These include a professional masters of education incentive scheme, funding for additional teacher upskilling programmes and increasing the number of posts of responsibility. A professional masters of education, PME, incentive scheme will be introduced for newly qualified teachers graduating in May 2024. These newly qualified teachers who graduate with a PME will, subject to some conditions, be eligible for an incentive payment of up to €2,000. This incentive payment will be paid to eligible primary and post-primary teachers in 2025. It will recognise the costs that PME students incur when completing their initial teacher education, assist them with these costs and encourage suitable candidates to consider a career in teaching.
Additionally, there will be an expansion in the number of upskilling programmes available. These programmes, which are free of charge to all teachers, increase the number of teachers who are qualified to teach in-demand subjects and reduce the level of out-of-field teaching. These new subjects in terms of upskilling include Irish, French, politics and society, and computer science and will be in addition to the existing upskilling programmes in maths, physics and Spanish. Also, an additional 1,000 posts of responsibility will be provided in the school system for the 2024-25 school year. This is in recognition of school leaders and of the role they play in improving educational outcomes by creating a positive school climate and environment, as well as motivating and empowering educators and learners within their school communities.
These new measures are in addition to a range of targeted measures that I have already introduced in recent times, including at primary level my approval of 610 additional places on initial teacher education programmes for this and the next academic year. I recently met with the primary teacher initial education providers on continuing existing flexibilities that enable student teachers to support schools, either while on placement, or in a substitute capacity. In 2023, more than 2,700 student teachers registered with the Teaching Council and provided valuable support to schools as substitute teachers.
I do not think we can step away from the fact that there is a teacher shortage crisis happening in primary and post-primary schools. To address some of the initiatives the Minister spoke about, the PME incentive of €2,000, for example, is very welcome, but the PME course down here is two years. A graduate who wanted to take on the initiative would still have to deal with rising rent costs. God help them if they live in Dublin where it would be eaten up and actually would not even cover the cost of a month's rent.
The Social Democrats made a number of suggestions last year and I will go to them because they really cut through to what we need. They are permanent whole-time jobs to be given to teachers upon initial appointment; teachers in training to be paid for their work in placement schools; allowing teachers to be recruited on a full-time basis after the traditional cut-off of 31 October; and eliminating delays surrounding the re-registration of teachers with the Teaching Council. I do not doubt for a second that the Minister also recognises the crisis but we diverge slightly in terms of actions that need to be taken to address it. As I said, €2,000 as a number looks fine but in comparison the PME in the North is only one year and costs considerably less, and that would have made a much bigger difference.
I acknowledge the Deputy's proactive engagement in this space. We recognise that we are at near full employment and that there are challenges within the education sector, similar to challenges we have in the hospitality or business sector - you name the sector and there are challenges. I acknowledge that should not in any way diminish the particular challenges that a principal might have and face at a given time in terms of teacher availability. It is more acute in some areas than in others.
Specifically regarding the PME and the two-year aspect, in the first instance I have visited an awful lot of schools and met an awful lot of student teachers and one of the key issues highlighted to me is the cost. Because of the cost we introduced this €2,000 support for PME graduates and that is a very positive step forward. We keep everything under review but I am conscious, and everybody in this House knows, that more and more is being asked now of teachers. They are asked to be qualified in so many different aspects: special education; relationship sexuality education, RSE; social, personal and health education, SPHE; the curricular subjects they teach, and so much more. It is a significant demand on them and it was for that reason it was extended in the first place to two years but we keep everything under review.
The Minister will have a chance to come back in.
I appreciate the Minister will keep it under review but I also think that two years, for someone who has already gone through an undergraduate degree, is probably a little bit too much. Teaching is a profession and I know so many people who are in it and love the fact they are there, or would love to get into it. However, it is simply not affordable anymore to be a teacher in our cities and towns and to incur the cost of living which is crippling our public services as whole. The consequences of this include some special education teachers being forced to plug gaps in primary school mainstream classrooms leaving vulnerable students without the level of teaching they deserve; second level posts are left empty; and subjects are disappearing from curriculums in schools across the country. In the Minister's budget she highlighted there would be 700 new teaching posts that could be filled by the budget allocation. I do not see how we will fill them given the fact the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, INTO, is already talking about how we will lose another 250 teachers this year. We have to be real. For the PME the €2,000 will make a slight difference but it will be a drop in the ocean compared to the cost of actually trying to be a teacher in this country which is astronomical at the minute.
There are a number of routes into teaching as the Deputy is aware. Recognising the issue around the PME route and the expense of it, I have already outlined the €2,000 support there. I want to acknowledge the 3,500 teachers graduating every year. It is very significant. I have also increased the number of places on the initial teacher education programmes by more than 600 over two years. There were 2,700 student teachers last year who registered with the Teaching Council. We have never had such a high level of registrations with the Teaching Council in terms of student teachers making themselves available. Restrictions across a whole variety of schemes, whether it is the job-sharing schemes, have been lifted. There is a waiver of abatement for retired teachers. We have looked at teachers at post-primary level who wish to teach additional hours and they can do so and be recompensed for it. We have looked at teacher sharing schemes and as I said we looked at posts of responsibility because again it is a pathway towards furthering oneself in one's career and 1,000 additional posts have been made available there. There are also the PME schemes and the upskilling programmes. I know these work. I attended a graduation in University of Limerick, UL, a couple of weeks ago where more than 100 teachers graduated in maths.
I thank the Minister. We are way over time.
