10% of substitute posts filled by retired teachers

ALMOST one in 10 teachers paid for doing substitute work in primary schools last month were actually retired teachers.

Fine Gael criticised the practice at a time when thousands of newly-qualified teachers cannot find a job and called on Education Minister Mary Coughlan to free up all casual and substitute teaching hours for unemployed teachers.

Party education spokes- man Fergus O’Dowd was told by the minister, in reply to a parliamentary question, that almost 400 retired teachers were paid for substitute work in primary and second-level schools.