Sir, – Around 2016, I was finishing my postgraduate studies and was successful in my application to the two-year professional master of education (PME) in UCD. Due to how the course was structured, I was required to find a Dublin school that would take me as a student teacher for a few days a week for at least the entire first year in my chosen subject, biology/science. I was offered no support in finding a school, and when I asked for support from the School of Education in UCD was told it provided none. No school would accept me, with one school saying outright, “If you aren’t an alumnus, we won’t take you.”
Furthermore, I would have obtained no financial supports, other than perhaps a bank loan, as my postgraduate degree is a level 10 while the PME is a level 9.
Compare that to England at the time. Due to the lack of teachers of certain genders and in certain subjects, they offered bursaries to attract people into those subjects. These bursaries would have covered not only the fees for the one year course, but also a large amount of my likely rent. Further, the English university would find the school placement for the trainee teacher. Currently, England offers bursaries of £10,000 in eight subjects, with four of these, chemistry, computing, maths, and physics, also coming with a scholarship of £26,000.
Ultimately, I concluded, the education sector in Ireland didn’t want me, and so I found work elsewhere within Ireland.
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Perhaps the Irish policymakers are applying a modified version of Shaw’s mantra about teachers. Those who can, do; those who can afford it, teach. – Yours, etc,
Dr PAUL LAVIN,
Kilmainham,
Dublin 8.
Sir, – Recent news stories relating to the difficulty of Dublin schools finding it increasingly difficult to recruit teachers are understandable.
Other countries have faced similar problems in their capital cities. I began a teaching career in London exactly 50 years ago. At the time Inner London Education Authority, faced with what is now a Dublin problem, decided to pay a London allowance. This worked and soon outer London authorities followed suit. Schools situated in areas of significant disadvantage paid a social priority allowance. In time, I also benefitted from this incentive.
Years later, as principal of a London secondary school, I was able to reach an agreement with a housing association that secured a number of housing units for newly appointed teachers.
In addition, I was able to open a nursery school on our secondary school premises with very favourable rates for teachers’ children.
When I later moved to my second headship in rural Essex, I was given very generous removal and relocation expenses. One of the first performance targets I was set by the board of management was to address serious staff shortages, which I duly did. In my final years, I was able to work with a local university and other local schools to set up our own on-site teacher training facility which attracted graduates, many of them our past students, interested in a teaching career.
My conclusion is that our overcentralised Irish education system is controlled by a central Government unable to find common-sense, innovative solutions to soluble problems. – Yours, etc,
ALAN WHELAN,
Killarney,
Co Kerry.