Sir, – Prof Judith Harford and Dr Brian Fleming (Letters, November 1st) correctly highlight some of the obvious factors behind the long-running teacher recruitment crisis – teacher pay, cost of training, etc.
However they failed to mention the role of powerful interested groups like the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD). This body recently held its annual conference. The Minister for Education was present. Surprisingly, public comment from the conference on the teacher recruitment crisis was muted. Given that you regularly run articles about how principals struggle to fill teaching positions I would have thought that this powerful group would have taken the opportunity afforded by their conference to at least publicly condemn the Minister and her officials in the strongest possible manner.
Instead they continued with their soft diplomacy option when dealing with the Minister, an approach which has obviously failed.
Perhaps now is the time for the NAPD and all powerful groups involved in education (especially the patrons of schools and parent associations) to change their approach to dealing with the teacher recruitment crisis?
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– Yours, etc,
ALICE McCARTHY,
Palmerstown, Dublin 20.