Schools urged to give subbing work to unemployed teachers

SCHOOLS are being urged by Education Minister Mary Coughlan to give substitution work to unemployed teachers, after it emerged one-in-10 primary teachers paid for substitute work in September were already retired.

But the body representing the boards of most of the country’s primary schools says any teaching work should always go to the person most suited to the job, which might not necessarily be a recently-qualified teacher.

A letter arriving in 4,000 primary and second level schools this week from the Department of Education will tell them that Ms Coughlan wants them to prioritise newly or recently qualified teachers when making appointments for substitution work.

Figures revealed in a Dáil reply to Fine Gael last month showed that almost 400 retired teachers were paid for covering staff absences in September, 302 of them in primary schools, despite the reminder from former minister Batt O’Keeffe a year ago to give work to unemployed teachers over retirees if at all possible.

“The Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills Mary Coughlan TD strongly endorses this approach. She believes that first call must be given to teachers who are not in work and appreciates the efforts of those schools who have responded positively to date,” the letter states.

“She therefore asks all authorities to afford priority to such teachers for all substitute and other temporary appointments over those who have retired,” it concludes.

Fine Gael’s education spokesperson Fergus O’Dowd said that the minister should be more forceful in telling schools not to give work to retired teachers while hundreds of qualified teachers are seeking full-time employment.

But the Catholic Primary School Management Association (CPSMA) said it did not believe schools should be given prescriptive instructions on the matter.

“We can understand the frustration of unemployed teachers if some schools are giving work to retired teachers. But for any temporary or substitute work, a school should always appoint the best person available to ensure the needs of the pupils are best met,” said CPSMA assistant general secretary Margaret Gorman.

“More than two-thirds of primary principals also teach classes and they may prefer, especially in smaller schools, to have somebody with more experience taking classes for substitute work. On the other hand, somebody who is recently qualified might have detailed knowledge of new advances in education and could be the most suitable person for the job,” she said.

An amendment to education law currently going through the Oireachtas would allow schools to give work to people who are not qualified as teachers, but only where efforts can be shown to have been made to find a qualified teacher.