Education Department Branded A "Disgrace" As School Sends Home Two Substitute Teachers

A school principal has branded the education system a "disgrace" following their response the teacher shortage crisis.

This comes after Tonya Hanly Principal of Our Lady of Lourdes in Dublin, was forced to send home two substitute teachers who were subbing at her school, as the department said they could not employ them.

The two teachers in question have taken career breaks, and plan to go to Australia in two months, and agreed to sub in the school for a few weeks. The Department of Education said the could not pay the two teachers. 

Ms Hanly revealed that she is unable to fill these positions, despite several attempts. 

"We advertised about five times. I interviewed three times. I'm on teacher WhatsApp groups. I have gotten on to the teacher training colleges. But I just can’t find teachers", she said. 

Adding that all seven of these vacancies are in the area of Special Education (SET), Ms Hanly explained that it is children with special needs who are missing out, as she is obliged to transfer teachers from this department, in order to ensure that she has enough classroom teachers.

"I have only three SET teachers where I should have ten", Ms Hanly continued. "These are children who need but haven't received services like speech therapy and occupational therapy so they really need assistance from us, in terms of their literacy and in numeracy, also in communication, how to communicate effectively with their peers for instance". 

"Because of our demographics we have a lot of very vulnerable children and a lot of children in the tenth percentile [of ability]", she added. "We are in the middle of a national [teacher shortage] crisis. We knew it was coming and I have been asking the department since last June what are they going to do to alleviate it". 

"They have no idea what’s going on, on the ground, in schools like ours". 

According to the department, teachers who are on a career break can only provide cover for positions which become vacant due to sick pay, or maternity leave.

The positions that Our Lady Of Lourdes are looking to fill, are for full-time fixed work. 

The department have also stated that as a career break is a period of special leave without pay, any teacher who is absent, may not be employed in any approved teaching or special needs school, which is post funded by the Oireachtas. 

Ms Hanly has called for more flexibility, in the wake of this ongoing teaching crisis.

"It's really challenging for us to manage the needs of our children with extreme needs, with a third of our staff missing", she said. "We've tried to focus here on early intervention because that's absolutely vital". 

"But we've had to pull some of that away now because there are children, older children, across the school who are in need of extra support for literacy and numeracy", she added. "And we've had to identify those across the school and just do the best we can with what we have".