Crisis in the staffroom: ‘Teaching was once assumed to be a soft number. That’s over now’

Early term reports on morale levels among the secondary-school teaching fraternity in Ireland are troubling. When Geraldine O’Brien began her role as the president of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) in August, she offered a stark synopsis of the challenges of the job. She invited the Government to “get real about the factors that are making teaching in Ireland unattractive” and cited issues such as housing difficulties, workloads and underfunding as combining to make the shortage of teachers – a problem for years – worse than ever.

She also pointed to reading materials that endorsed her bleak view: the 2022 OECD report for Education at a Glance placed Ireland 36th out of 36 countries for investment in secondary-level education (based on spending measured as a percentage of gross domestic product). A survey commissioned by the ASTI found that 75 per cent of school principals received no applications for an advertised teaching post last year.

Government officials paint a very different picture. They say funding for the education sector has climbed to a record high and that GDP is a poor indicator of spending (the same OECD report, for example, puts Ireland higher than average when investment in education is measured as a proportion of overall public spending). They also add that teacher salaries now start at €41,000, and more than 3,100 newly qualified teachers joined the national register this year.

Nonetheless, everyone acknowledges that a combination of housing and cost-of-living pressures are affecting the supply of teachers, and many young teachers are opting to go abroad. The result is many second-level schools are left with vacancies in key subject areas, while many primaries struggle to find cover.

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It is all a far cry from the traditional moans people enjoyed about teachers – gold-plate pensions, the sweet nine-to-four working day and, of course, the endless holidays. What is happening in the secondary school classrooms of Ireland?

For me, the pay is not the big issue. It is – there is never enough time. You are time-poor. Marking. Set papers. Reports

—  Sean O'Mahony, teacher

“The argument and the debate is pretty much over insofar as teaching was traditionally assumed to be kind of a soft number,” says Richie Bell, who has taught history and religion for three decades in Galway city. “It never was, but people had that assumption. That’s over now – and what proves it is the fact that we cannot get teachers in our school. If it is so easy, where is everyone?”

Sean O’Mahony arrived back in Ireland last Christmas after a decade of teaching abroad. His university class had the cosmic misfortune of qualifying as civil engineers in 2009, just as the recession decimated their new profession. “The previous year, all 65 graduates on the course had job offers in Ireland,” he recalls.

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“In our year, there was one just one offer.”

That abrupt halt contained a blessing. O’Mahony had begun to realise that he didn’t want a life in engineering and had begun to consider teaching.

“It gave me the space to go back and figure what I wanted to do. I like coaching and teaching. I like building relationships. Maybe I like telling people what to do! The two most important jobs in the world are making the world a better place or teaching people how to make the world a better place. I’m okay with not making a huge amount of money as a teacher right now. But I don’t see why we don’t value it more, to get the very best people doing these jobs that we can.”

I love teaching. I love the performance of it. But there is no way in hell that if my two sons said they wanted to be teachers that I would encourage it

—  Richie Bell, teacher

O’Mahony went back to college and studied for his two-year Master’s in Education. Three years in Amsterdam and a further six teaching in a private school in Sydney followed. O’Mahony is a maths teacher, a core subject that suffers from a deficit in teachers. So, when he returned to his native Cork with his wife last year, he assumed that obtaining work would be relatively simple.

“I sent out my CV that December to 14 schools in Cork. Only one got back to me. Now, they were keen, and offered me a full 22-hour contract. But I was surprised.”

He is absolute in his conviction that teaching is it for him. “It’s my passion,” he says simply.

“I am never going to leave it. Me as a teacher, I don’t want to get paid more money right now. In 2013, when I left here, I thought the pay was fine. But it is incremental. You get paid loads when you are 60, but if you are trying to build a house at 30, it is not so easy. But for me, the pay is not the big issue. It is – there is never enough time. You are time-poor. Marking. Set papers. Reports. All of that means that I am not delivering as much as I want to deliver. You see kids struggling and you want to sit down and have a chat and explain things. And then, they get it. And that is amazing. That can keep you going for the day. But in a class of 30, that is more difficult.”

There is an argument to be made that O’Mahony’s profession is different to that of 30 years ago. Bell shares something with O’Mahony: an unblemished love of the work he does in the classroom. But over the years, he has observed a general change, which he explains as a “quantification of teaching”.

“In other words, nothing mattered if you couldn’t count it. The bean counters seemed to take over. And the volunteerism aspect of teaching was almost looked down on.”

Bell graduated with what was then a Higher Diploma in Education in 1993. He was offered a full-time contract immediately – not uncommon at the time. His mother was a primary schoolteacher, and long before he finished school he realised it was the life for him. It still is.

“There was nothing else I wanted to do. And I love teaching. I love the performance of it. But there is no way in hell that if my two sons said they wanted to be teachers that I would encourage it. Because I see myself as almost having two careers as a teacher.”

Bell believes that the essential task of teaching – guiding a class through a two- or three-year curriculum – remains unchanged. But the job conditions have become unrecognisable. He was a boarder in St Jarlath’s College in Tuam, and even as a teenager was struck by the extra hours that teachers gave to coach Gaelic football – the “second religion” there – and the annual musical.

“I felt that I got a great education. We educated ourselves out of poverty in this country.”

That was the prevailing ethos when he started at St Mary’s in Galway city, then an all-boys boarding school. Last year, it was amalgamated with Our Lady’s College and is now a coeducational mixed day school named Coláiste Muire Máthair. Bell believes the culture within teaching began to change around 2008.

“They tried to apply the same methodology to education as they used for business.”

I would say, you would really, really have to want to do this profession. You are facing into a career system that is very under-resourced

—  Maria Markey-Greene, teacher

He admits it is difficult to identify who the “they” represents. There was no single dramatic ruling or implementation, just a gradual switch in emphasis on the way teachers went about their week-to-week approach. The “Croke Park” or public service agreement of 2010 formalised work practices and were designed to “increase efficiency, flexibility and to reduce cost”. It requires teachers at second level to work an additional 33 hours a year on non-teaching duties such as in-service training, policy development or planning meetings.

“I don’t know if it was because the Department of Expenditure and the Department of Education were forced to justify everything. The problem with that is this: after school today, for instance, I have Croke Park hours. After that, I have CPD that has to get done – Continuous Professional Development. You account for your hours. Teachers were always doing this, but now it has to be counted and signed off. What that has done has brought about an end to volunteerism. Everyone is ticking boxes. And this is societal.”

He sees younger teachers entering the profession, and sympathises with them. Despite the acute shortage, few are offered full-time contracts and are asked to work piecemeal hours in their early years. The pension plan is nothing like what was offered to his generation. He can see why graduates are passing.

[ Schools to be allowed to share teachers to help alleviate shortages ]

[ ‘It’s a nightmare’: Lack of affordable housing fuelling teacher shortage, principals say ]

Maria Markey-Greene pauses when asked what she would say to a student who asked her advice on teaching.

“I would say, you would really, really have to want to do this profession. You are facing into a career system that is very under-resourced. And that doesn’t seem to be changing.”

My fear is that colleges will begin to wonder if students coming through the Irish system are up to the standard

—  Maria Markey-Greene

Markey-Greene considers herself shaped by education. She grew up in Finglas, northwest Dublin, and won the lone scholarship then offered by Dublin City University (DCU) on an access programme. She remembers that the letter of offer stated that she was “socio-economically deprived”.

“That was a label that stayed with me. I knew I was poor. I didn’t need to feel extra poor.”

But she feels thankful for the people who guided her and set expectations as she moved through her schools. She can name key figures from her school days: Miss Hastings in primary, now deceased, who inculcated a love of reading. Miss Fabian in Business; Miss Ford for maths.

“As an adult, I can see how important it is for a student to see themselves in the adult in front of them. That being from a certain background doesn’t tie you into a scenario in life.”

Markey-Greene has been a teacher for 17 years. Because of flooding issues, her school, Rosmini Community School in Drumcondra, has relied on portacabins for a decade.

Recently she met past pupils, and as they chatted one of them told her that they could see now that the school, even though the main building was out of commission, was like a community to them. Conversations like that are invaluable. She continues to believe in the job. But like Bell, she believes that some fundamental change in the value system or ethos has moved through Irish classrooms.

[ Teacher supply crisis: Pupils ‘deprived of their passion’ as practical subject posts remain unfilled ]

“It is kinda no surprise to us to see that it is in crisis. It has been highlighted for the last couple of decades. So, it is not a surprise to hear there is a shortage of teachers for certain subjects; of taking career breaks or parental leave, going to other countries. It is a very underfunded profession. Normal, everyday things a teacher would encounter are not having a photocopier or implements that work.

“There’s been a huge increase in the workload over the past few years. Sometimes your choice at break time is: do I use the bathroom, or do I eat? I used to do a drama club, a dance club and Wednesday afternoon rehearsals, and I have hours taken up with Croke Park [hours] ... It almost feels like nonsense that you are being preached at, as opposed to being acknowledged for your level of professionalism.”

Markey-Greene also believes that many teachers fear that the Leaving Certificate will “go down the same road” as the Junior Cert in core changes that will result in “a lack of a depth of treatment of the knowledge” in the subjects taught.

“Because the Government did not listen. Subject associations put forward objections... But it is not listened to. What we see at the moment is a big jump between Junior and Leaving Cert. My fear is that colleges will begin to wonder if students coming through the Irish system are up to the standard.”

Government officials, however, argue that latest research suggests that Junior Cycle reforms show signs of a positive shift towards teaching and learning that is more student-led and involves greater collaboration among teachers, while Leaving Cert reform is needed to ensure the examination is fit for purpose for the 21st century.

Extending the free books scheme to secondary schools is believed to be under consideration for next week’s budget, to which the build-up has been dominated by the cost-of-living crisis. For now, Ireland’s educators must muddle on and make the best of things.

When Bell was shop steward in his school, he regularly fielded inquiries about early retirement. He predicts that the numbers of teachers bowing out early will continue to increase.

O’Mahony is still at the outset of his teaching career and optimistic that the problems will be ironed out. Coláiste Éamann Ris, where he works, is a Cork city institution; founded in 1828, it is now a Deis (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) school. It is, he puts it, an “interesting” change from his years in a private school where, he says, the staff “really, really cared” for the students, but nonetheless educated under a culture of “return for investment”. Once O’Mahony has completed two years, he must be offered permanency or a contract of indefinite duration. The obvious next step for teachers at his stage is to consider doing the courses to facilitate application for the more senior posts of responsibility. But he is not sure about that.

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“I find the post of responsibility a bit of a tough one. You do get paid more money and a reduction in teaching hours. But in terms of time, it never seems to be enough. So, you teach three fewer lessons a week, but you could do 12 more hours of work – and that’s time that’s not going into teaching and caring about students. If I have a worry about a kid in my class and they need extra help, I can give them that, but not if I am doing post-of-responsibility things. You could be year head, say. And have pastoral care for over 100 kids. Looking from the outside, it never feels like there is enough time.”

It’s a perspective that illuminates the old sense of teaching as vocation. Twenty years have passed since author John McGahern gave an address at St Patrick’s Drumcondra on the night he received an honorary doctorate, and he made the following point about education in general.

“Any nation or society which does not place education in the very forefront of its values will soon have no sense of itself, apart from what Freud calls ‘narcissistic illusion’. Without knowledge, we can have no sense of tradition, which must be continually renewed; and tradition is civilisation.”