Parents call for teaching posts to be made permanent in order to deal with staffing crisis at school

A meeting of parents in Dublin West last night demanded to know of local ministers why teaching vacancies that cannot be filled at the school are not permanent whole time posts.

The meeting, organised by Coolmine School Parents Action Group, heard that the woodwork and practical subjects posts were only one-year contracts and attempts to fill them had failed once again.

The inability of the school to fill vacancies in teaching posts for this school year has now reached ‘crisis levels’ according to the Coolmine Community School Action Group.

They say the housing crisis in Dublin is a major reason why three of the school’s teachers have decided to relocate away from Dublin and take up teaching jobs in parts of the country where accommodation is more affordable.

Speaking afterwards, Ruth Coppinger, a secondary teacher and representative for Solidarity-People Before Profit at the meeting, said:

“It is incredible that during a chronic teacher shortage, the government expects to find teachers who will drop everything to return to teaching for a 1-year contract.

“Our students are sitting in ‘free classes’ for lack of teachers and missing their vital, much loved subjects — due to government inaction.

“The government representatives had nothing to say on the key reasons why there are teacher shortages — pay, promotion, precarity and, of course , the housing crisis. They had no problem giving bankers bonuses but won’t do anything to retain teachers, nurses and essential workers.

“Every teaching post that cannot be filled must immediately be made permanent.

“There must be a ‘bring them home’ campaign to offer a permanent job to every emigrant teacher.

“Thousands of promotional posts taken away in the bank bailout cuts could immediately be created in schools.

“Affordable housing for essential workers could be built by the state in Dublin and cities.

“I call on the teacher unions to have a conference in Dublin in the new year to hammer out a plan of action on the recruitment and retention crisis.

“I commend Coolmine parents for organising meetings in this issue — we now need to extend the initiative throughout Dublin West.”