Over 1,500 retired teachers hired for state exam work

Fianna Fáil and teacher leaders have criticised the continued use of more than 1,500 retired teachers annually to supervise and correct Junior and Leaving Certificate exams.

They made up one in six of the 9,228 people appointed to those jobs by the State Examinations Commission (SEC) last year. The 1,528 employed last year is five more than in 2013, but down from 1,860 retired people given the work in 2012, when they accounted for 22% of exams appointments.

The SEC provided the figures to Fianna Fáil education spokesman Charlie McConalogue, who had sought information in a Dáil question to Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan. The data follows the revelation that while the numbers of retired teachers being employed for substitute work is falling, more than 500 worked in schools last year.