A total of 147 unqualified teachers employed by primary schools for the 2003-04 school year were re-employed by these schools in September 2004. The recruitment and appointment of teachers to fill vacancies in an individual school is a matter for the board of management of the school concerned. Unqualified teachers should only be employed in exceptional circumstances and when all avenues for recruiting qualified personnel have been exhausted. In this context, my officials have recently written to all primary schools which, on 1 September of the current school year, were employing an unqualified teacher who had worked previously as an unqualified teacher.