ALMOST three million class days were lost by primary school children last year due to a lack of trained substitute teachers, according to the Irish National Teachers Organisation.
The INTO general secretary, Senator Joe O'Toole, described the situation as "another example of the deterioration in funding at primary school level".
The INTO president, Mr Liam McCloskey, warned that the organisation might have to direct its members not to work with untrained substitute teachers if the situation continued.
As the INTO convened in Killarney yesterday for its annual "congress, it emerged that almost 100,000 fewer substitute teacher days had been paid for in 1995/96 than in the preceding year.
According to Senator O'Toole, this meant that almost 100,000 classes, each with up to 30 pupils, did not have a substitute teacher paid for when their regular teacher was absent.
"The issue here is that we now have a situation in our schools where schools cannot find trained substitute teachers.
We, as teachers, would like to go on the record as expressing our concern that this is unsafe."
In 1994/95, some 167,317 school days were covered by substitute teachers (108,000 trained, 60,000 untrained).
Last year the number of days worked by substitute teachers fell to just under 70,000. Of those teachers, only 40,329 were trained while almost 30,000 were untrained.
In 13 counties, including Cavan, Donegal, Meath, Louth and Wicklow, the number of days worked by untrained teachers exceeded those worked by trained teachers.
Senator O'Toole said that the safety of pupils was of the utmost concern to the organisation, with teachers and parents also losing out because of the current situation.
The lack of substitute teachers meant that classes were being split up or children were being "half supervised" by other teachers.
In some cases, he said, children were simply being kept at home, "all of which is unacceptable".
The lack of qualified teachers was also criticised by Mr McCloskey, in his address to the congress last night. He said hundreds of untrained personnel were daily working in primary schools.
"It is a constant source of anger amongst teachers and a grievous insult to our professional status and standing in the community to allow unqualified people to act as replacements in our schools."
He warned that the time was "fast approaching when this organisation will have no option but to direct its members to refuse to work alongside unqualified personnel in our schools".
Mr McCloskey called on the Government to increase the intake of students into teacher training. He said a national campaign on the issue, involving parents, teachers and school management bodies, was now needed.
The INTO estimates that the fall in the number of days covered by substitute teachers saved the Department of Education £6 million in teachers' pay yet this £6 million was not reinvested in primary schools.
"I think the Department should reinvest this £6 million in the extension of supply panels of substitute teachers so all school management authorities will have access to trained, qualified primary school teachers when teachers are absent," he said.
Senator O'Toole said that it would take a panel of 800 teachers to provide a full national coverage for substitution duties. Agreement had been reached on the structures of these panels and most of the conditions under which they would operate. It was now a matter of appointing them.