19th August 2024
Following extensive representations made by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) in recent months, the Department of Education has today confirmed the restrictions on teachers undertaking substitute work under the terms of the Career Break and Job Share schemes will again be lifted for the entirety of the 2024/25 school year.
Circular 54/2019 limits teachers on career break to work as a substitute for 90 school days and under the same circular, teachers who are approved to job share may not undertake additional substitute work.
Information Notes TC/IN 0008/2024 and TC/IN 0009/2024, published today, temporarily lift these restrictions for the coming school year.
Both job-share teachers and those on career break should note that they may only take up work which is paid through the OLCS.
INTO General Secretary John Boyle said:
While we welcome the clarity that these information notes provide to our members and their employers, we urge the Department of Education to engage with the long-term, substantive solutions to the teacher supply crisis which INTO has proposed.
Teacher recruitment and retention challenges have become an annual feature in Irish primary schools. Once again we have reports of schools struggling to fill permanent posts, year-long contracts and substitute positions. Irish pupils deserve to have registered teachers in their classroom every day.