ASTI - Ireland's main second level teachers union

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Newly graduated teachers are facing the fact that their best chance of getting a teaching job is to emigrate, a student teacher told the ASTI’s annual conference today.

Aoife Ní Mháille, a student teacher from Trinity College Dublin told the 450 conference delegates: “Teacher positions are as hot as Adele tickets for the Olympia last month. As graduate teachers struggle to become part of the school community through part-time teaching hours, it is becoming apparent that our best chance of finding secure work is to find it abroad. Emigration is the new permanency.”

A recent ASTI survey found that 12 per cent of graduating teachers do not plan to seek teaching work in Ireland due to the lack of secure jobs. More than half believe that they will not have a secure teaching job in five years time.

As well as having poor job prospects, new teachers have been targeted with a 14% pay cut, the conference heard. “Can you imagine being in a school, doing the same job as your colleagues, and being paid according to a completely different salary scale?” Aoife Ní Mháille asked delegates. “It is unfair. It means inequitable working conditions in schools. Is this good for schools and for education?”

ASTI General Secretary Pat King said new entrants to the teaching profession are at a most vulnerable stage in their careers. “These teachers face poor job prospects, a severe pay cut and a pension scheme which will see them pay more in contributions than they will ever receive in benefits.”

“Instead of helping us to rebuild our society and economy, our highly educated and motivated young teachers are being forced to emigrate,” said Pat King. “We are investing in their education, only to export them at the end of it.”
 
 
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