‘It’s a nightmare’: Lack of affordable housing fuelling teacher shortage, principals say

A crisis in the recruitment and retention of schoolteachers is being fuelled by emigration, a lack of affordable housing and a scarcity of full-time teaching contracts, according to school principals facing into the new academic year.

Earlier this week, the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) said there were 416 unfilled post-primary teaching positions advertised on the recruitment website educationposts.ie.

Georgina Keena, principal of Roscommon Community College in Roscommon town, said the school has two unfilled positions heading into the new academic year. Five years ago, when Ms Keena took up her role at the Co Roscommon school, having two unfilled position weeks away from the beginning of the academic year “wouldn’t have been normal”, she said.

“Whereas it is now,” she said. She is still hopeful that she will fill the positions, “and start the year on the front foot”.

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John Cullinane, the principal of St Anne’s Secondary School in Tipperary town, said that while his school has no staff vacancies at present, he has noticed a significant group in the amount of applicants to job postings in recent times. “It’s fallen off a cliff edge,” he said.

In particular, filling “specialist” teaching roles – such home economics, technology and woodwork – is becoming increasingly difficult, Mr Cullinane.

Principals who spoke to The Irish Times said recruitment in urban areas is facing an acute crisis, given the added cost of living in major cities such as Dublin.

‘We need to cultivate what we have, and invest our time and money into our young teachers’

“Housing is an issue,” Mr Cullinane said. “I know that’s why a lot of our colleagues up in Dublin in particular are having such difficulty, it is to do with housing.”

Ms Keena agreed. “The housing and the rent is a bit cheaper [in rural areas]. In urban settings, it’s a nightmare.”

In stark contrast to conditions in Ireland, better opportunities abroad – both financially, and in terms of careers progression – is encouraging Irish teachers to look beyond Ireland, Mr Cullinane said.

Job security – or a lack thereof – is also contributing to the current crisis. On Tuesday, the Teacher’s Union of Ireland (TUI) said that just 31 per cent of recently-appointed teachers received full-time contracts when first offered a job at their respective school, according to a survey carried out by the union.

Further to this, just 13 per cent of teachers were appointed to a permanent position on their initial appointment.

“This is simply unsustainable if we are to keep teachers in front of classrooms, particularly in a cost-of-living crisis,” Michael Gillespie, secretary general at the TUI, said.

“Teachers cannot exist on fractions of a job, and it is hardly surprising that so many of our excellent, highly qualified graduates are migrating to other employments or to take up teaching posts in jurisdictions where they feel properly valued.”

People want security in their job, Mr Cullinane said. “Particularly, you’re starting out, and you want to get a mortgage or you want to rent a house or whatever, you want some bit of financial stability. And I suppose not having a permanent contract ... that is an issue for people.”

Young teachers are a huge asset to schools, and offer new ideas, according to Fiona Gallagher, principal of Presentation College in Headford, Co Galway. Poor contractual offerings will only see newly-qualified teachers move country in search of work.

“That’s what we would hate to lose,” she said. “[We need] to cultivate what we have, and invest our time and money into our young teachers.”

A failure to solve the issues at hand will lead to a reliance on unqualified personnel, Mr Cullinane warned.

According to a survey carried out by ASTI, 81 per cent of principals or deputy principals have employed at least one unqualified teacher during the last school year.

“I would have no doubt that there may be a point in time where you may have somebody who maybe held a degree in a particular subject, but maybe hasn’t done their PME [Professional Master of Education] or anything like that, and they may end up teaching classes, if something isn’t done,” Mr Cullinane said.