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.