Paul Murphy
Question:130. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Education the steps she is taking to address the impact of teacher shortages on special education; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52821/23]
View answerThursday, 30 November 2023
Questions (130)
Written answers
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. The Department recognises the importance of providing well-timed and appropriate support to pupils with identified learning needs.
• The Special Education Teaching allocation for mainstream schools provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs to each school, based on the educational needs profile of each school.
• Schools are frontloaded with ring-fenced SET resources for the purpose of supporting pupils with an identified and recorded special education learning need. This allocation allows schools to provide additional teaching support for pupils who require such support in their schools based on each pupil’s individual learning needs.
• It is a matter for schools to deploy SET resources effectively to meet the needs identified in the Student Support Plans, which should be based on the continuum of support framework.
• Once the Department allocates SET hours to a school it is the responsibility of the school and the board management to utilise the allocation to meet the needs of those students with special educational needs. Special Education Teaching Hours should only be used for their intended purpose to support pupils with an identified and recorded special education learning need.
The Department continues to engage with the National Association of Boards of Management in Special Education (NABMSE) since August with a view to ensuring that special schools are supported with a range of measures and flexibility to address the challenges which are particularly acute in their settings. NABMSE surveyed their member schools in this regard and the Department also engaged directly with a number of special school principals.
While the number of vacancies is relative in terms of the overall size and capacity of each school, the situation also ranges in scale in terms of permanent teacher vacancies, sick leave replacements, and maternity leave replacements.
The Department provided a number of support options to NABMSE to circulate to their member schools as well as responding directly to special schools who made contact including:
• Flexible deployment of staffing resources in special schools including support from NCSE in the form of additional SNA recruitment.
• Enabling the employment of Route 3 registered teachers on fixed-term contracts.
• Enhancing the availability of substitute teachers to cover short-term absences including student teachers in the 3rd and 4th years of B.Ed programmes and clarifying retired teachers may teach for up to 50 days in a calendar year without reducing their pension.
Budget 2024 contains a range of measures that demonstrate my commitment to continued investment in our education system. These include a professional masters’ of education (PME) 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 2024. Those 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. This 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 to 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 upskilling programmes in Irish, French, politics & society, and computer science will be in addition to 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 that school leaders play a key role 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 introduced in recent times in mainstream and special education settings, including:
• At primary level, I approved 610 additional places on initial teacher education programmes for this and the next academic year (2023/24 and 2024/25).
• Earlier this year, I 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. This number is expected to be exceeded in the current school year.
• Continuing the operation of primary substitute teacher supply panels in 2023/24, with 590 teaching posts allocated to 166 panels covering nearly 2,900 schools. This scheme provides substitute cover for teachers employed in primary schools who are absent on short-term leave.
• Encouraging retired teachers to provide substitute cover. A communications campaign ran in early 2023. This has resulted in an increase in the number of teaching days provided by retired teachers of 49%, an increase of over 17,000 days between the 2021/22 school year, and the 2022/23 school year.
• Restrictions on job-sharing teachers from working as substitutes have been reduced. These teachers may be employed to work as substitutes during the period they are rostered off duty and limits on substitute work applying to teachers on career break have also been suspended.
• Post-primary teachers can provide up to 35 additional hours of substitute cover per term in the subject they are qualified to teach.
The teacher allocation ratio in primary schools is now at the lowest ever seen at primary level. The average student-per-teacher ratio in primary schools reduced by 10% between 2017 and 2023.Teaching is an attractive career choice.
• CAO first preference choices for post-primary teaching increased this year by 14%, in addition to a 9% increase in 2022.
• Starting pay for Primary teachers is over €41,000 and for post primary teachers over €42,000 since October under the extension to Building Momentum.
• Over 3,700 newly qualified teachers have registered with the Teaching Council in 2023, with over 120,000 now on the Teaching Council register.
While schools in certain locations are experiencing challenges in both recruiting teachers and obtaining substitute teachers, the vast majority of sanctioned teacher positions are filled. The rate of resignation and retirement is very low by any standard, and is consistent with previous years.
My Department continues to engage closely with school management bodies, teacher unions and other education stakeholders to develop further, innovative measures to address teacher supply issues.