1.6.4 Recruitment and retention

1.6.4 Recruitment and retention

A range of actions is being implemented to meet teacher supply challenges

To address the challenge of teacher supply in primary and post-primary schools, the Department established a Teacher Supply Steering Group in March 2018. This group, under the chairmanship of the Secretary General of the Department, examined the root causes of the shortage in detail and developed a programme of actions to address issues of teacher supply. An Implementation Group supports the work of the Steering Group.

The work on teacher supply led to the publication, in November 2018, of the Teacher Supply Action Plan, which contains a range of actions in four policy areas:

■data and research to support teacher supply planning

■policies and arrangements for schools and teachers that impact on teacher mobility/supply

■higher education: policy, provision, funding and support

■communications and promotion of the teaching profession, including the development

of a portal for teacher substitution

In late 2018, the Teaching Transforms campaign was launched to promote the teaching profession and to encourage applications to initial teacher education programmes, using digital, radio and video media. The campaign is ongoing and is supported by a dedicated webpage. Other key actions completed under the plan include the publication, in November 2019, of the Developing a Teacher Demand and Supply Model for Ireland 2020-2036: A Technical Report, which projects teacher demand and supply to 2036.

In the higher education sector, a number of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) commenced new postprimary initial teacher education programmes in 2019 and 2020 in priority subject areas, and programmes to upskill registered post-primary teachers in Spanish, Mathematics and Physics. Other actions included the launch, in December 2019, by the Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) and the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) of Sub Seeker, a portal to match teachers with substitute vacancies. In 2019/20, the Department also piloted a Substitute Teacher Supply Panel Scheme for primary schools; this was expanded nationwide for the 2020/21 school year.

The Department and the Teaching Council implemented a range of measures to increase the supply of available teachers for the re-opening of schools in September 2020

The Department implemented a range of exceptional measures to increase the supply of teachers at both primary and post-primary level for the 2020/21 academic year, when schools reopened following the COVID-19 closure of schools in spring 2020. These measures included offering additional hours to the 2,800 teachers who were working part-time in post-primary schools, allowing job-sharing teachers to work additional hours, and making it more attractive for teachers on career break to provide substitution and supervision cover. The Teaching Council also implemented measures to increase the supply of registered teachers who could be available to fill posts, including making contact with the 6,000 registered teachers who were not currently active in schools. The IPPN also ran a campaign to encourage registration with the portal. Following this, over 5,000 teachers had registered with Sub Seeker by November 2020, compared to approximately 1,800 in March 2020. These interventions allowed schools to hire additional teachers more easily and were critical in keeping them open. However, the lack of availability of substitute teachers still remained a challenge during the pandemic; this was a particular finding from the Inspectorate research conducted during the September-December 2020 term, and indeed continued to be an issue into 2021.