Just how severe is the teaching crisis in primary & secondary?

[Colleenmaith]

And how will children be affected? The school my dc attends has a number of vacancies advertised..

I hope the misconception that teaching is child friendly doesn’t bite your mum friends in the bum.

Unfortunately, schools (for obvious reasons) don't say when a teacher is unqualified. There are plenty of children being taught by unqualified teachers in order to ensure that schools are staffed. This only adds to the problem, as parents think that there isn't a staffing crisis. It lowers the quality of teaching and learning and has a knock on effect because gaps in learning develop. This is often not the fault of the person teaching, but how can they be expected to have full curricular and pedagogical knowledge without the proper qualification.
Principals have no choice, the alternative is to send children home and no one wants to do that.

Honestly I see it getting a lot worse in the next 3 years. A lot of my work friends who were at one stage extremely passionate about teaching are quickly losing interest and looking to pursue other careers. Myself included!

The shits doing to hit the fan in Ireland isn't it.. Secondary schools are apparently very badly hit also.. The dept of education have their heads in the sand.
If more parents were made fully aware of the realities it would be great!

I think it depends on the area. Where I live, primarily jobs are fiercely competitive and there are far more applicants than places - a friend of mine is teaching in an independent school a fairly long commute from her home as she couldn't get a job at any of the local state primaries.

For secondary, it's a different story, and both of my children have had long periods of time being taught by substitute teachers. I don't think it's just a teaching thing though. The teachers who have left/been off long-term sick are often doing so not because of the job but because of the problems facing the wider society - long COVID,/chronic illness, caring for children with mental health problems when CAMHS is so stretched, other caring responsibilities.

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/education/2024/09/02/ai-tools-could-revolutionise-education-but-leave-gaelscoileanna-behind/