Sir, – The perspective and experience of a school principal on the teacher supply crisis are extremely valuable. In the course of a very interesting opinion piece, John McHugh provided us with an up-do-date picture of the reality on the ground (“Dublin’s acute teacher shortage calls for emergency action”, Opinion & Analysis, August 26th).
In particular, we note his comment in relation to surveys carried out in recent years by the Department of Education in an effort to gain some insight into the scale of the problem. In and of itself, this is a welcome development.
However, the fact that the results have been embargoed is regrettable and unacceptable. It seems highly likely that these surveys will illustrate not just that subjects have been dropped from the curriculum, but that out-of-field teaching is widespread. That refers to situations in which post-primary teachers are assigned classes in subjects for which they do not possess the necessary qualifications. If we are correct in that assumption, surely students, parents, guardians and the wider public are entitled to know the details. –Yours, etc,
Prof JUDITH HARFORD,
Dr BRIAN FLEMING,
School of Education,
University College Dublin,
Belfield,
Dublin 4.
Sir, – John McHugh makes valid points and suggestions regarding the shortage of teachers, particularly from his Dublin school principal’s point of view. He does not emphasise enough the two main obstacles to qualified teacher supply – lack of decent contracts and length of training.
Newly qualified teachers can expect to scrabble around for years to piece together the teaching hours and wages to survive. On top of that, these hours are precarious and fragmented. It’s a bit rich to hear Ministers and managements wailing about the lack of teachers, when those same bodies have it in their power to offer full-time permanent posts with probation, rather than bits and scraps.
Secondly, it takes typically six years of study, including a primary degree, to become a registered teacher. That’s comparable to medicine and longer than most other professional training paths. Is it too much to ask that the current Minister and Tánaiste follow through on their favourable comments about halving the duration of the postgraduate master’s in education?
Our young students deserve enthusiastic, confident qualified teachers.
Bring back proper full-time contracts, and a one-year postgraduate master’s in education, and watch the teacher supply crisis dissolve. – Yours, etc,
EDMOND RIORDAN,
(Fellow Emeritus,
Munster Technological University),
Carrigrohane,
Cork.