The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has criticised the limited scope of a refund mechanism for a small proportion of the fees to undertake the Professional Master in Education (PME) required to teach at second level, describing it as being piecemeal and paltry.
Details of the scheme were confirmed through a Department of Education circular letter yesterday. The union has said that the measure will have a negligible impact on the teacher recruitment and retention crisis.
Speaking today, TUI General Secretary Michael Gillespie said:
‘Fees for the PME can cost up to €15,750 for the two-year course, and we would estimate that after taxation, the €2,000 payable to new teachers under this scheme will fall to well below €1,000.’
‘We strongly advocated for the benefit to be administered as a fee refund scheme for teachers rather than through payroll, but regrettably this request, which would have prevented against an already small amount being further reduced through statutory deductions, fell on deaf ears.’
‘It is also unacceptable that the benefit would only apply to those newly qualified teachers who completed a PME programme in the 2024 calendar year. This is an insult to the very small number who may have completed the PME in the previous few years and who, for various reasons, chose not to commence employment or were not in a position to commence employment as a teacher until in 2024.’
‘Overall, this is a missed opportunity that will have a negligible impact on the current teacher recruitment and retention crisis.’
‘It is students who are losing out the most as a result of this crisis, with less access to the full range of subjects and situations where they can be taught a subject by a succession of teachers.’
In all fora, the TUI has made clear to the Department the measures that are required to effectively tackle the crisis. These include:
- Increasing teaching allocations to schools to allow more full-time, permanent jobs from initial appointment. Only 35% of those recently appointed received a contract of full hours upon initial appointment, with just 12% offered a permanent position on appointment
- Boosting retention by restoring career structures cut during recession
- Halving duration of two-year PME required to become a second level teachers
- Eliminating red tape that hinders Irish teachers working overseas in returning to take up positions in Ireland, including awarding full incremental credit for their service abroad
- Tackling ever-increasing workload, particularly that of a bureaucratic nature, that continues to be a demoralising factor, and one that sees many leave the profession.