More than 1,200 retired teachers get subbing jobs

MORE than 1,200 retired teachers have been employed as substitutes in just six months despite repeated calls on schools to give the work to unemployed teachers.

As recent graduates of teacher training courses emigrate or change jobs, more than 400 pensioners have taken classes for at least a month up to the end of February. The payments vary but a qualified primary teacher can be paid €195 a day for substitute work, with casual substitution at second level paying €46.85 an hour.

More than half of the 300-plus retired teachers used in some of the 480 second-level schools outside the vocational sector worked for at least 40 days in the current school year. They include 143 who were given 50 days of work or more — the equivalent of 10 school weeks.

At second level, the retired teachers may include some who taught minority subjects for which some schools could have difficulty finding a substitute cover. A retired teacher working as a substitute in a second-level school would not, in all cases, be for the full duration of the school day.

Around 1,600 people qualified as second-level teachers last year, and a survey by the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) last week showed that hundreds who graduate this year will emigrate or change careers because of poor work prospects and other factors.

The data obtained from the Department of Education show that substitute work was given to 961 pensioners at some of the country’s 3,300 primary schools from September to February. Although it is around one-third less than the number used for subbing in the previous school year, the practice has deprived hundreds of graduates of the chance to gain vital experience needed for permanent jobs.

Higher Education Authority figures show that more than two-thirds of the 1,400 people who received primary teaching qualifications from state-funded colleges in 2008 were relying on substitution and part-time work the following spring, with the numbers getting permanent jobs falling rapidly due to cutbacks.

More than 60% of retired primary teachers brought back into the classroom have worked 10 days so far during this school year, but almost 70 have been subbing for at least 40 days since the autumn.

The proportion of all substitution work in the last two school years done by retired teachers was not available from the Department of Education.

The revelations come in spite of written requests to Ireland’s 4,000 schools from Mr Quinn’s predecessors Batt O’Keeffe and Mary Coughlan to prioritise unemployed and recently-qualified teachers for substitution and other work since 2009.

The minister told the Irish Examiner the practice is more unacceptable than schools using unqualified teachers.

Legislation already going through the Dáil before the election would amend section 30 of the Teaching Council Act to allow schools only to use unqualified teachers in exceptional circumstances, and Mr Quinn might now apply the same rule to retired teachers.

“I’m going to take steps to discourage the practice whereby retired teachers are subbing and filling the spaces or doing hours that could be properly and usefully allocated to young, recently qualified teachers who have to earn a living,” he said.

“I need to take as strong steps as are possible, that’s what I’m going to explore. We will bring in legislation that will be 90% similar to what is in Section 30 but with some degree of flexibility,” Mr Quinn said.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, whose members include principals of the 3,300 primary schools, said it consistently urged schools to ensure all vacancies be filled by qualified teachers and that unwaged teachers be given preference over those who are unqualified or retired. But union president Jim Higgins said the department must set up a panel of teachers to help schools match vacancies with those seeking work.

“The department could do more to improve the employment prospects of unwaged, trained teachers. There are always going to be circumstances where a school can not get a qualified substitute at short notice,” he said.

“But strict limits could be placed on employment and it could be monitored by the department’s payroll division so alarm bells should sound each time a two-week salary cheque is issued to a retired teacher,” Mr Higgins said.

Mr Quinn said he accepts the major difference between a principal getting a call from a teacher shortly before class to say they are sick and where it is known that somebody is going to be on leave for a couple of weeks or months.

“The response for the unforeseen one-day emergency would be totally different to a situation where you know in advance that somebody is going out on maternity leave or is diagnosed with an illness that’s effectively going to take them off the pitch for a period of time. They’re totally different and the response should be different,” he said.