Irish Examiner view: Teacher recruitment and retention crisis needs imaginative solutions

Wider implications of proposals such as recognising teachers' experience abroad will have to be thought through carefully

Recruitment of teachers has long been a challenge, but the TUI has also pointed to difficulties with teacher retention, calling on the Department of Education to make teaching a more attractive proposition. Picture: iStock

The approach of September means one thing in thousands of households across the country: The return to school and all of the attendant tensions and stresses.

For hard-pressed parents trying to ensure their children have everything necessary for the new school term, it can be a particularly trying period, but that is not the only cohort in education under pressure.

The squeeze on teaching numbers has plenty of causes — the accommodation crisis in the country is one of the root causes, particularly in urban areas such as Dublin, and dropping subjects has been one of the results. The Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) found earlier this year that one in five schools had been forced to drop a subject due to staffing issues.

While recruitment of teachers has been a long-standing challenge, the TUI has also pointed to difficulties with teacher retention, calling on the Department of Education to make teaching a more attractive proposition.

As Jess Casey reported here this week, TUI president Anthony Quinn pointed out the downstream impact on pupils when retention becomes an issue: “When schools struggle to retain teachers, students suffer with less access to the full breadth of subjects.”

One way to help retain teachers in the Irish system, which was suggested by Mr Quinn, centres on teachers returning from working overseas. 

Second-level teachers who return to Ireland from positions in private schools outside the EU are placed on the first point of the teachers’ salary scale, but the TUI recommends that such overseas service be recognised, otherwise those teachers may remain overseas or leave teaching altogether.

This is an interesting suggestion, though it seems to contain an apparent contradiction: Would a teacher returning from overseas work be able to “leapfrog” another teacher at the same school who had remained in situ?

There is also the matter of experience gained in the Irish educational system through continuous service being put on the same level as experience gained in very different educational systems overseas. This area also seems fraught with potential problems.

If we are to address issues in Irish education we will need to be imaginative, but we will also need to consider the wider implications of our plans.

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Motorway driving

The country is still reeling from the shocking news which filtered through from the M9 crash near Moone in Kildare in the early hours of Sunday, and the shocking toll of five teenagers killed, with three women and a child seriously injured.

That was not the only serious car-related incident in recent days. A garda car was rammed in Dublin at around the same time as the crash near Moone, while last week a car was driven the wrong way onto a motorway — the M50 in Dublin — which resulted in a crash that left nine people hospitalised.

Given the fact that the five teenagers killed near Moone were also in a car reportedly travelling the wrong way on the M9, it is hardly surprising to read that the Government is to consider making that a standalone criminal offence.

As reported in the Irish Examiner by Tadgh McNally, justice minister Jim O’Callaghan described such driving as: “Using a vehicle as a weapon, and it is a lethal form of behaviour that, as we saw over the weekend, results in deaths and serious injuries.”

There is widespread anger throughout the country, not least because the three women and child injured in the M9 crash were travelling to the airport and were caught up in this shocking situation through no fault of their own. For many, the indifference to others’ lives and safety on show in these cases is deeply infuriating and concerning.

However, a knee-jerk reaction is inadvisable when emotions are running high. Defining this offence in legislative terms could pose serious challenges, for instance, while the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors has already pointed out that garda pursuit training, which would upskill members of the force to deal with such incidents, may be delayed by policing commitments for the EU presidency.

There is also the long-standing dissonance between legislation, no matter how well-intentioned, and the nuts and bolts of enforcement. As with so many aspects of our legal framework, the strongest provisions are meaningless if not enforced.

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Another own goal for Fifa

The chaos at Fifa rumbles on. The organisation’s chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, has left his role at soccer’s governing body just weeks after criticising its president, Gianni Infantino, and his controversial World Cup sell-off plan.

The 'Irish Examiner' reported yesterday that Mr Lamour had been sacked by Fifa, which was hardly a shock after his description of Mr Infantino’s plan as “the project of one person”; he also said: “The time has now come for football political leaders to ask themselves the right questions and make the right decisions”.

It is still difficult to believe that Fifa could find itself embroiled in such a mess so soon after a successful World Cup earlier in the summer, with Mr Infantino’s position at the head of the organisation under serious threat.

Questions surely remain about the security of his tenure, particularly in the light of departures such as Mr Lamour’s, which suggest a malfunctioning administrative structure in Fifa. The jury may still be out on whether Mr Infantino can survive this latest twist in the saga, but it has surely inflicted another grievous wound on his credibility, and that of his organisation.