Increasing numbers of second level teachers are experiencing income poverty as a result of casualisation of the profession, the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) today said.
The latest figures show that almost 30% of TUI’s second level members are on part-time or casual contracts of less than full hours, and the union estimates that this percentage is much higher among those teachers under 35 years of age.
TUI is seeking that sustainable teaching career paths that ensure full time, permanent positions over a reasonable timeframe are re-established as a matter of urgency.
Speaking today, TUI General Secretary John MacGabhann said:
‘It was once the case that second level teachers were appointed to permanent, full-time jobs, but regrettably it has become the recent norm for young teachers to spend many years on low hours and low incomes with no guarantee of being retained from year to year. Having only fragments of jobs, many experience income poverty and regularly struggle to meet basic financial commitments. To make matters worse, those who entered the profession from 2011 onwards are on severely reduced salary scales.
In an era of cutbacks and staffing reductions, young teachers in temporary part-time positions are at most risk of being jettisoned. Such attrition leads to instability for students, who often end up being taught a subject by a succession of teachers over the Junior and Senior cycles. In such a situation, it is clear that everybody ends up impoverished.
This harsh reality is far removed from the common but erroneous depiction of second level teaching as a secure and protected profession. Before earning a cent, teachers must navigate through an unpaid training period of five years, which is soon to become six years. They previously did so in anticipation of securing employment. Now there is a real danger that the increasingly uncertain nature of the resultant teaching career will force the best young graduates to either seek teaching work in other jurisdictions or simply to consider more secure employment options.
We are seeking a system that ensures stable and viable work for teachers with a clear career path and a stable income. Teaching must be restored to a profession of secure, full-time jobs.’