Waterford schools sending children home due to lack of supervision cover

Staffing in schools in Waterford is an alarming cause for concern, according to the INTO (Irish National Teachers Organisation), who have said the Minister for Education is failing to address ongoing issues. 

The education of primary and secondary school students is suffering at the hands of teacher shortages, but the INTO says there are many things that could be easily changed within the Department of Education to ensure children get the education they need and deserve.

The Department of Education in 1999 said 30 students should be the maximum in a classroom, and according to primary school principal, and INTO Waterford representative, Brendan Horan, the Department would be making themselves accountable, should it enforce that as "they’d have to resource the schools” to meet their own regulatory requirements.

“The safety regulations, we’d love to know them and by not defining safety regulations, schools are doing their best to manage what they have,” said Mr Horan. “The difficulty with regulation is that you have to enforce it, and for a school to say, 'I don’t have a person to supervise the next class, so I’m sending children home', nobody wants to do that. It’s certainly a case that principals are put in a very awkward position when people are out sick at short notice."

In addition to the risks that are presented with understaffing, the impact that teacher shortages have on students’ confidence and ability to settle and work well with their peers is often dismissed and sometimes creates difficulties for students who rely heavily on routine and trust built with their teachers.

“Even changing a person coming into a room will have an impact on every child, but certainly on children with additional educational needs, and that’s the unknown impact,” said Mr Horan.

Mr Horan added that schools who qualify under DEIS band one in the Waterford City area find the impact of the teacher shortage more challenging.

"I do know that schools and principals are doing their best. Urban areas are under huge pressure because Special Education Teachers (SET) are being used in mainstream classes more, which means the pupils who rely on these teachers are the ones really suffering with teacher supply problems, and they don't have that voice," explained Mr Horan. 

As it stands, the work that teachers carry out when teaching abroad is not recognised when they return to Ireland, therefore, they remain at the same spot on the payscale as when they left. The housing crisis is another difficulty they face when they return home. These issues have been addressed by INTO and ASTI unions, however, students continue to remain without teachers.