Cork school principal says substitute teachers are 'just not available' 

THE lack of substitute teachers available for primary school cover has been described by a Cork principal as the worst he has seen in his 36-years of teaching.

In Cork, the number of expected long-term substitute vacancies in the next three-months is 114.

Principal of Scoil Padre Pio in Churchfield Ken Foley said that the day-to-day management of the school, in of trying to find substitute cover for absences, has become very difficult.

“I’m 36 years teaching and I have never come across it so bad. Substitutes are just not available,” he said.

“With the day-to-day management of the school when teachers are out sick or out for various reasons where they can’t come in, you just cannot get cover and in the morning time you’re running around trying to move staff and it’s very difficult.

“Unless you know something well in advance, you don’t even try [to get substitutes]. Historically, you might make 10 or 15 phone calls in the morning and get a sub, but now you don’t even try because it's just not a runner.

“It’s a huge concern. It’s probably at the moment the biggest part of my job in the morning time. Just trying to organise cover takes up so much of your time. You have the planned absences that you may not have cover for anyway but then unplanned absences kick in as well so it becomes exceptionally difficult.” Mr Foley’s comments came as the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO), in conjunction with the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN) and the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association (SMA), published the results of an extensive survey highlighting an unprecedented level of vacant teaching posts in primary and special schools.

The survey of all primary and special schools was conducted in the first week of October with a total of 1,094 schools responding (a 35% response rate).

The survey identified the disproportionate adverse impact on certain schools, with 28% of all schools in the survey reporting long-term vacancies, 50% reporting long-term vacancies in DEIS schools and Gaelscoileanna, and 43% of special schools.

The survey also found that in total, there is a current shortfall of 809 permanent, fixed-term and long-term substitute teachers in the schools who responded to the survey. These schools have also indicated that they anticipate having an additional 1,202 long-term vacancies within the next three months.

Mr Foley said the situation also has a knock-on effect on the upskilling of existing permanent and temporary teachers in the school as there are no available substitutes to cover staff being sent on various training courses.

“We’ve always been a school to encourage staff to engage with in-service and Continuous Professional Development (D) because they bring back the best methodologies and the best practices back to the school but it's becoming difficult to do that.

“There are supply s in place, but they’re booked out weeks and months in advance. I feel sorry because for so many years we’ve encouraged the staff and they’ve constantly engaged and upskilled and now you’re looking at trying to draw out timetables and schedules to see who can go to what course, so I find that the hardest part of it.” Deputy principal of the North Monastery Primary School Colin Daly said that principals are “trying to keep the show on the road” but that the situation is a worry facing every school across the country.

“If you find yourself with two or three teachers out and you can only get one substitute or some days maybe no substitutes, what happens is a child will lose out on what they’re entitled to and what they should be getting.

“From a DEIS context, with two ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) classes attached to it, that can mean that the children in our school who need it the most tend to lose out through no fault of anybody.

“We have WhatsApp groups between management figures around the city and they are constantly going until about 11pm to midnight trying to get subs to come in the following morning and at 6am again the following morning there’s another message and you’re asking subs to you.

“I coming out of college myself and there were no subbing jobs available. It was tight to get into a school and if you got into a school, you worked hard to try to keep yourself there.

“People have the choice now, if they want to sub in a city school, if they want to sub in a rural school, if they want to sub in a DEIS school or an ASD class, they have the choice of what they want to do now because we are tied.” Mr Daly said that he believes the Department and governing bodies “are all working together to try and solve this”.