The Minister for Education is continuing to sleepwalk through the teacher recruitment crisis in our schools, according to Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon.<\/p>\n
Deputy Gannon, who is the party\u2019s education spokesperson, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe annual teachers\u2019 conferences taking place this week should refocus Minister Foley\u2019s mind on one of the most serious challenges facing our education system \u2013 the recruitment and retention of teaching staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Minister and her department seem to be in a permanent state of paralysis when it comes to tackling this crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government needs to incentivise people to take up teaching as a career, which means removing some of the financial and academic barriers they face while studying.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is now well over a year since the Social Democrats put forward a range of measures aimed at speeding up the pipeline of teacher graduates into our primary and secondary schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur proposals included reducing the Professional Master of Education (PME) from two years to one to help address the significant costs of studying to be a teacher \u2013 a practical measure that the Minister has so far refused to consider.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also called for the creation of funded scholarships to be awarded to outstanding candidates, including those from minority backgrounds, to allow them to pursue primary school teaching qualifications.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Minister should be encouraging new teachers to remain in Ireland after they qualify. That means giving them permanent, full-time jobs on their initial appointment instead of temporary, precarious employment.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this week\u2019s conferences, Minister Foley must fully engage with teachers\u2019 unions and come away with a clear, workable plan to address chronic staff shortages in our classrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n
April 2, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Minister for Education is continuing to sleepwalk through the teacher recruitment crisis in our schools, according to Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon. Deputy Gannon, who is the party\u2019s education spokesperson, said: \u201cThe annual teachers\u2019 conferences taking place this week should refocus Minister Foley\u2019s mind on one of the most serious challenges facing our education […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218,316,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-gary-gannon","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n