Irish Examiner View: We need to learn lessons

Teacher shortfall

The cost of accommodation was cited as one of the reasons affecting recruitment of teachers. Picture: Larry Cummins

Yesterday this newspaper reported on the difficulties schools face in recruiting teachers  — in a Teachers Union of Ireland survey it was revealed that 71% of schools had advertised positions in the past six months for which no teacher applied, a scarcely believable statistic.

Teaching has been a revered profession in Ireland for centuries and beyond, with countless Irish emigrants benefiting from a good education to succeed when they left these shores.