Dealing with the teacher shortage

During a press conference held on May 28, John Bencini, MUT president, rightly aired his concern at the considerable drop in students studying at the Faculty of Education.

It is therefore a foregone conclusion that the teaching profession will be facing a shortage of teachers in particular in the primary sector and in the science and IT subjects. In this same press conference he also cautioned against the engagement of unqualified teachers.

I would like to comment on the above two very sensitive issues. While Mr Bencini gave statistics to show the drop in the number of students who are following the B.Ed (Hons) course, we have very little data (if any) on how many teachers our schools would need in the coming years. It would therefore be wise to collect data to identify precisely the real needs, in what sector and/or areas. It is only when we have this data that we can really plan for the future.

On the second point the union is right to alarm us to the dangers of opting for past solutions when hundreds of unqualified "instructors" were employed.

Not to allow ourselves to get to this point we need to plan ahead and within certain parameters which are respectful of the responsibility teachers have towards the education of children and therefore our future generations.

We have to ensure that what we have promised, that is to ensure quality education, remains our top priority. Obviously, no other solution can be as good as having enough professionally trained teachers.

It should be therefore wise to invest in promoting the profession. But we cannot just promote something without seeing that we have a good product to promote.

Linda Darling-Hammond in her book Keeping Good Teachers: Why it Matters What Leaders Can Do (2003) identifies four contributing factors to whether teachers remain in the classroom or not.

These are salaries, working conditions, teacher preparation and mentoring support.

We cannot therefore expect that by simply promoting the profession we are going to attract more students to join the B.Ed course.

The package needs to be complete. Teachers are going to want to join the profession and/or remain in the profession if they have a financial return which is adequate and attractive enough, working conditions which are respectful of their responsibility and a continuous support system that helps them progress in their professional development.

This points in particular to the need to have a proper induction period with mentoring support for teachers in their first and second year teaching.

Any contingency plan needs to be drawn up within certain boundaries of respect to the profession. I mention here some possible solutions. One partial solution could be that of offering retired teachers the possibility of part-time employment. Another is to encourage teachers who because of family responsibilities cannot enter full-time teaching the possibility of working on reduced hours. We need also to have a clear deployment plan. Teachers made redundant could be offered in-service training in collaboration with the Faculty of Education to be able to move across sectors. Finally in certain areas of the curriculum where we don't have enough teachers we might need to issue international calls for teachers from other countries.

I hope that the above points lead to further discussion to ensure a quality service to all our children.