1,200 extra teachers needed 'to deal with population growth'
The Teachers Union of Ireland has warned that 1,200 more secondary-school teachers will be needed in the coming years to deal with population growth.
The union said the primary school population had increased by 10,000 since 2000 and these pupils would be entering second level in the years ahead.
It said it expected secondary-school pupil numbers to remain relatively static for the next five years before increasing dramatically and the Government needed to plan ahead to meet the challenge.
Speaking ahead of the union's annual conference this week, TUI general secretary Jim Dorney said: "At the present time, you have situations in the national schools where, because people didn't look forward, there are now not sufficient teachers.
"Demographics have to be looked at and we think that you want to look at them in sufficient time to make sure that there aren't any bottlenecks."
Meanwhile, other issues up for discussion at the TUI conference include discipline and inadequate state funding in education, particularly in Institutes of Technology.
| Related Stories: |
|
