Children missing out on time with special education teachers due to staff shortages

The Irish Primary Principals Network is calling on the Department of Education to roll out a scheme that will allow children to catch up on any missed time with their SET teacher later in the school year, when more staff are expected to be available.

Children are missing out on time with their special education teachers because of staff shortages that will likely worsen during the current wave of sicknesses, principals have warned.

Schools have been reminded that anyone with symptoms of respiratory illness should stay at home while the chief medical officer has appealed to parents to keep children out of class if unwell.

Many schools that have struggled so far this academic year with staffing have been forced to relocate special education teachers (SET) to cover absences to avoid having to send entire classes of students home.

Before Christmas, Education Minister Norma Foley previously ruled out allowing schools to ‘bank’ these missed hours with special education teachers.

 “It’s a situation that I think is worrying everyone,” said Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) chief executive Páiric Clerkin.

“I think in the short term we are going to be under pressure, and I find it hard to see how schools can avoid using their SET teachers in situations where they are given the choice of keeping the class in school or sending them home.

“They’ll always choose to keep them in school and that will mean, in some cases, they have to use their SET teacher to do so.

It’s not sustainable, and when that happens there are children missing out. Every day you don’t have a substitute teacher in the school, children are missing out on one-to-one interaction with a teacher.” 

The IPPN is calling on the department to roll out a scheme that will allow children to catch up on any missed time with their SET teacher later in the school year, when more staff are expected to be available.

This scheme would involve 'reinvesting' the money that has not been used for substitution, he added.

“We need to look at how we can give extra support to children. It’s been a very, very difficult time over the last number of years for them.

“My biggest concern about that is that we need a scheme to ensure that if any child misses out on any time with their SET teacher, we support those children when we will be able to get staff, which I believe will be after Easter. 

“That money is gone back into the system; it’s not been used because there is no teacher available. It’s only right that money is reinvested in children." 

A spokesman for the Department of Education said a number of measures have been put in place to "enhance" the supply of teachers for the current school year. This included lifting restrictions on job-sharing teachers and retired teachers and a new registration route for undergraduate student teachers. 

More than 2,000 student teachers registered under this route in the period to December 2022. However, work remains to be done to address teacher supply challenges, particularly to ensure the availability of sufficient substitute teachers, he added. 

"It is essential that schools must ensure that the additional SET supports are used to support pupils identified with special educational needs, learning support needs, and additional literacy needs." 

Resources must be utilised to ensure students' needs are supported so "that they can achieve the best possible educational outcome", he said.