As he prepares to fill temporary teaching staff positions in a small primary school in the west of Ireland, the principal, Niall Quinn, is spoiled for choice. That is despite the fact that the two-teacher Westport Educate Together National School (ETNS) is only five years old and is located in a temporary home in a one-time accommodation block for hotel staff.
With the current national narrative about a serious shortage of teachers, Quinn was actually surprised “there were only 30 applicants for the positions”.
“There has been more than three times that amount of applicants for a position since the school opened in 2019,” he tells The Irish Times. “When I was principal [in Holy Family NS] in Dún Laoghaire, I used to worry about the lack of applicants for an interview, or then that those who did apply for a job wouldn’t turn up for interview, because of the shortage of teachers on the ground. I can only imagine how bad it has become now to get teachers and to retain them.”
When Quinn taught in Dún Laoghaire he had a two-hour commute each day to and from home on the north side of the city.
“We couldn’t get an affordable house nearby and when the opportunity arose to establish a new school in Westport, we decided to take the plunge and move,” he says.
When Westport ETNS opened in 2019 it had eight pupils; this September there will be 50 pupils on the roll.
“We have a real mix of children from different ethnic and religious backgrounds, with the parents of our pupils often new to the area. They also are prepared to travel a bit from other places in the county, such as Louisburgh and Partry,” he explains.
Regarding the profile of applicants for teaching positions, Quinn has noticed “an awful lot of young teachers returning home from Abu Dhabi or Dubai”.
“This is front and central of many applications. Others may have an address in Dublin but confirm they are natives of the west,” he says.
Down the coast in Clifden, Dara McAleer, the principal of Scoil Mhuire NS, suggests the quality of life offered by such coastal towns as Westport and Clifden may be part of the attraction. His school has 240 pupils, 21 teachers and two special classes.
Indeed, former Scoil Mhuire teacher Eily Vaughan recognises some of her one-time pupils at the top of some of these classrooms. She has subbed in schools around Connemara since her recent retirement.
“After I qualified in the early 1980s, the main thing was to move away to cities to experience life there. It is so interesting and great to see some of the children I taught 20-plus years ago moving back home and taking up teaching positions here. I assume it is partly due to accommodation costs but quality of life in the west is a big draw these days,” Vaughan says.
Back in north Mayo, Vincent Duffy, the principal of Breaffy NS, Ballina, addresses the significant problem of finding substitute teachers as the academic year progresses.
“It can be difficult to get subs from January to June, partly because the academic year starts in January in Australia and a lot of young teachers, who are available in September, have left by the new year,” Duffy explains.
Breaffy NS has 250 pupils with 15 full-time teachers, as well as three fully qualified teachers who are part of the Department of Education’s supply panel for subs in the area.
Quinn says they are never idle and are always in demand for the 24 schools, which this panel services in the area.
Regarding numbers applying for jobs, he says: “There are very few permanent jobs advertised because they are filled through the diocesan panels usually for fixed-term or temporary positions. There would usually be 20 to 30 applicants,” he says.
Interestingly, he adds that many of the small rural schools in Co Mayo, which were in danger of closing due to falling numbers, have been saved by the arrival of Ukrainians and the children of international protection applicants.
“A number of very small schools, for example, in the Ballina and Swinford areas have got a new lease of life and, in some cases, doubled in numbers from, say, 10 pupils to 20 because of these new members of our communities,” Duffy says.