Secondary school principals struggling to fill teacher positions, survey shows

The Irish education system faces a teacher recruitment crisis with more than half of school principals reporting they have unfilled positions, according to an ASTI survey.

More than 90 per cent of principals also said they had experienced difficulties filling posts.

According to ASTI assistant general secretary Moira Leydon, about 55 per cent of school principals reported that their school currently has unfilled vacancies with the problem being most acute in relation to Irish, maths and home economics.

Ms Leydon said principals were also experiencing difficulties to a lesser degree in recruiting teachers to teach Spanish and German.

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The online survey conducted by Red C saw 2, 565 of 13,771 ASTI surveyed members respond with 84 per cent of principals reporting that since August 2021 there have been situations where no teacher applied for an advertised teaching post.

The survey also found that almost 90 per cent of principals reported that situations arose in the current school year where no substitute teacher was available to cover for absent teachers and principals had to respond in different ways on different occasions.

Student teacher

About 92 per cent of principals reported that they or the deputy principal stood in on some occasions, 81 per cent of principals reported that they used a student teacher on other occasions while 68 per cent of principals said that they had to use an unqualified teacher on other occasions.

Ms Leydon told a press briefing in advance of the ASTI’s annual conference in Cork next week that principals identified a number of factors as impacting on teacher supply and chief among these was the inadequate number of teachers graduating in certain subjects.

Another critical factor identified by principals was the high cost of the professional masters in education (PME) teaching qualification which typically can cost €10,000 to €12,000 or up to €15,000 if it is undertaken via an online course, she said.

Allied to this was a general decline in the attractiveness of teaching which is related to well-being in the profession which has declined as workloads and work intensity has increased with more teachers identifying these as factors than the Covid 19 pandemic.

“Over seven out of 10 teachers identified workload – some 74 per cent and work intensity – some 73 per cent – as the main factors negatively impacting on well being and this heavy workload is underscored by the fact that 89 per cent of teachers have full time teaching hours.”

Teacher well-being was also affected by external events including the pandemic which was identified as a factor by 55per cent of respondents and negative media narratives about teachers which was identified by 62per cent of respondents as a factor, the survey found.

Ms Leydon said that some 60per cent of respondents had identified the right to disconnect from school e-communications after the school day as the main priority to improve well being as teachers can get emails after hours from management, pupils and parents.

More professional time

Teachers were also concerned about more professional time – ie, non-class contact – during the school day with 55 per cent of respondents identifying this as key to improving well-being and 51 per cent of respondents identifying smaller class sizes as another.

Ms Leydon said previous ASTI research found that the teacher’s average working week was 41 hours comprising some 21 hours and 20 minutes teaching in the classroom and an additional 20 hours on preparation for teaching.

Class size was also problematic in that large class size means high workload in terms of preparation for the class, setting and marking homework and record keeping while curriculum changes such as classroom-based assessment has also impacted on workload.

Some 67 per cent of principals concurred that workload was impacting negatively on staff well-being and 64 per cent were worried that individual members of staff were manifesting low levels of well-being though 81 per cent thought teacher well-being was good in the circumstances.

Teachers also stated that the quality of working life was of paramount concern among younger teachers and many long-serving teachers felt younger teachers were less likely to remain in the profession if this quality was further eroded.

And the ASTI also identified unequal pay as damaging the attractiveness of the profession and teacher retention with unequal pay having “a corrosive effect” on the profession with many expressing the view it is compounding the teacher supply problem.