Jennifer Horgan: Teacher shortage is a real issue — but teachers assessing their own students is not

I’ve always been at odds with the secondary teacher unions over their refusal to assess students for State exams — we’re the teachers and assessing students is what we do

Jennifer Horgan: 'Recruitment and retention in teaching needs to be addressed urgently. Sharing teachers between school is not good enough.'  Picture: Larry Cummins

The top two issues under discussion at this week’s secondary teacher conferences are recruitment and retention and assessment at senior cycle. I have strong feelings on both but one is far more complicated than the other.

Recruitment and retention in teaching needs to be addressed urgently. Sharing teachers between schools is not good enough.