Numbers of young female teachers may pose issue

The dominance of women around family-rearing ages in teaching could become a major issue for school staffing, a review has found.

The analysis of the Teaching Council register shows that 77% of all 90,000 people eligible to work in schools are women. More than one-third of those 69,000 women are under 34, and another 18% are 35 to 44, and the total is 40% of the profession.

The interim report of the council’s working group on teacher supply says it is clear that a significant proportion of female teachers are at, or approaching, family-rearing age.

“This indicator has the potential to have significant implications for the supply of teachers in the years ahead, as the high proportion of young female teachers on the register approach middle age,” it says. The issue is more marked in the primary sector, where 85% of teachers are female and a very large proportion of teachers are in their 20s or early 30s.

Among the issues raised have been shortages of second-level teachers in some subjects like Irish, home economics, chemistry and physics, but oversupplies in other areas.

Submissions to the group also highlighted imbalances between urban and rural areas, challenges of teachers taking on subjects they are not qualified to teach, and concerns about unrestricted intake to private college teacher-training courses.

The working group chaired by the Association of Community and Comprehensive Schools ex-general secretary Ciarán Flynn is set to issue a final report in the autumn.