Survey confirms almost 1,000 teaching jobs not filled in Irish schools

A new survey has revealed that there are almost 1,000 teaching jobs currently vacant nationwide in primary and special schools.

The report found that principals are regularly being forced to rely on people who are not registered with the Teaching Council to cover short-term teaching absences. 745 unregistered individuals have been hired so far this year, with 284 of those being in Dublin.

The survey, which was carried out by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO), Irish Primary Principals’ Network and the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association, was conducted from September 30 to October 7. 40% of all primary and special schools responded.

The report noted that there are currently 951 vacant posts at schools in Ireland. This figure includes permanent, fixed-term and long-term substitute roles. During the same period last year, there were 809 vacant jobs, according to the INTO.

The study went on to state that 29% of schools surveyed were unable to fill all of their teaching positions allocated for the 2024 to 2025 school year. According to the report, the counties struggling the most are Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare, where more than half of schools confirmed that they have unfilled roles.

The report added that there is a “widespread” reliance on staff who are not qualified to teach, including 1,103 registered teachers who are not qualified. An INTO spokesperson said these are likely to be student teachers with less than two years left to complete at their teacher training courses.

39% of schools have said that, in the first five weeks of this school year, they have been forced to split up classes into other classrooms when a substitute teacher could not be found. Almost half of principals admitted their experience with recruiting staff this year has been as stressful as last year, with nearly a fifth of principals having to make more than 10 attempts to urgently secure a substitute teacher.

A Department of Education spokesperson has since said that it does not have data on the current number of teacher vacancies at primary and secondary level, as schools are continuing to recruit.

They added that the department intends to complete an updated version of a technical report titled ‘Developing a Teacher Supply and Demand Model for Ireland’, outlining the demand projections for teachers over the coming years.