Ministers enter Education portfolio amid teacher recruitment 'crisis', says union

Fine Gael’s Helen McEntee has been appointed Minister for Education and Youth. File photo

Calls to pause Leaving Cert reforms, a teacher recruitment crisis and employment precarity at third-level institutions are some of the key issues in education facing new ministers.

Fine Gael’s Helen McEntee has been appointed Minister for Education and Youth, while Fianna Fail's James Lawless has been appointed as Minister for Further and Higher Education.

The appointments come at a time when the recruitment and retention crisis amongst teachers is worsening, and schools are experiencing “unprecedented difficulties” filling vacancies, according to Michael Gillespie, general secretary of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI).

“While the accommodation emergency affects all of society and must be dealt with on a national basis, contracts of full hours must be provided from initial appointment to boost recruitment and teachers must have access to enhanced career structures to ensure staff retention. It must also be made easier for Irish teachers to return home from abroad.”

At third level, investment is “lagging” behind, he added. As a result, the ratio of students to lecturers has been “consistently and unacceptably higher than international norms".

“This is a shameful and unacceptable legacy of a refusal at political level to address the sector’s funding crisis in any meaningful way. The new Government must commit to a long-term, sustainable funding model for the Technological University and Institute of Technology sector. 

The scourge of precarity of employment in higher education settings must also be properly tackled.

The TUI has also called for a delay in rolling out Senior Cycle redevelopment. The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) has also called for a pause, highlighting teachers' concerns around the authentication of project work.

Mr Gillespie said: "The accelerated pace of the redevelopment risks undermining both educational standards and fairness for Leaving Certificate students. There is far too much at stake for this not to be done properly."