THURSDAY'S NEWS

Shortage of Protestant schoolteachers in Republic
(report courtesy of Rev Gregg Ryan of the Church Times)

Protestant primary schools in the Republic of Ireland are understaffed because of a lack of interest in teaching as a profession, despite the presence of the Church of Ireland College of Education in Dublin and the availability of places for student teachers there.

General Synod heard on Thursday that while Roman Catholic colleges of education had many applicants for each available place, there was a distinct lack of interest among young Anglicans in taking up the profession.

Bishop Ken Clarke, (Kilmore) proposing the report of the Board of Education, said: “The Protestant community is not generating the same level of interest (as the Roman Catholic community) in the limited number of places in the College in Rathmines, Dublin.”

“Boards of management face an enormous struggle to fill vacancies be they permanent, temporary or substitute positions and out of urgent necessity have had to employ unqualified staff. We may appeal to the Minister for Education to sanction further places in the college and to provide capital funding for that college’s development plan but until we clearly say that teaching is an esteemed valued and crucial profession, schools at both primary and secondary level will face a shortage of qualified teachers who are supportive of the ethos of our schools.”

Canon John Merrick (Elphin) said that there are thirteen counties in the Republic where there is no Protestant second level school although there are national schools under Church of Ireland or other Protestant patronage in every one of the twenty six counties.

As headmaster of Sligo Grammar School, he expressed concern that the government, in a proposed review, might place in doubt the future of the block grant scheme to Protestant secondary schools which the Irish Government’s Department of Education and Science has given to the sector as free schools for the past forty years.

“They (the government) have maintained the scheme and have understood the need to support the requirements of a minority community dispersed throughout this country. The second level schools under Protestant management have not in any sense been exclusive but have sought to give the children from the sponsoring Protestant communities first priority for enrolment.”

Nonetheless, he said, within the requirements of available space all children have been welcomed and made feel comfortable without compromising either their own beliefs or the ethos of the school.

The secretary of the Synod’s Board of Education for Northern Ireland, Revd. Ian Ellis, said the (reformed) churches in the province had transferred the schools under their management to the State in a period between the 1930s and 1950s, retaining the right of representation on the Boards of Governors and Area Education Boards, and also retaining rights to religious education.

The churches were seeking to continue to assert that the schools are not secular but church-related, and to explore ways in which that relationship can be used to the most positive effect.

(report courtesy of Rev Gregg Ryan of the Church Times)

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