The REC said there had been a double-digit rise in vacancies for teaching staff in the past few weeks, with almost 40,000 open roles. In secondary education alone, teaching vacancies went up by 12.6%.
Chief executive Neil Carberry said this showed the scale of the issues with pay, workload and conditions of service among teachers. “Schools are increasingly struggling to hire as the impact of several years of below-target initial recruitment plays out,” he said.
Teaching unions have recently held a series of strikes against pay and conditions in their sector, with failure to meet recruitment targets and attract new teachers into the profession among their key concerns. The National Education Union has advised members to reject the latest pay offer from the government.
