Principals face ban on hiring substitute teachers

PRIMARY principals will be banned by their union from hiring unqualified people from September in protest at their continued use for substitution instead of unemployed teachers.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) annual congress changed its policy adopted in 2008 that would have seen members refusing to work with non-teachers from 2013. A motion on the issue was amended after it emerged this week that more than 400 unqualified people have been working in primary classrooms for at least 10 weeks of the current school year.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn told the Irish Examiner earlier this week he believes restructured vocational education committees could eventually be given responsibility for finding substitute teachers for primary schools. But the INTO’s move puts him under pressure to set up a system by the end of the summer under which substitute cover can be better organised at short notice.