Teaching in the Republic

[davey]

Myself and my wife are both teachers and currently work in Scotland. Just thinking what are the current regulations are regarding teaching in the Republic? We're thinking of moving. Having been brought up in England, I have no Irish Language qualification, although can speak a little. My wife was brought up in Derry and dropped Irish as soon as she could.
A few questions

1) What is the current status regarding having a qualification in Irish? I heard a while back that people could be employed without it but had to gain the qualification within a certain timescale. Is this true? Any moves to get rid of this ridiculous situation ( imho).

2) What are salaries like?

3) Demand for teachers? I'm a primary school teacher - although do have secondary qualification too, my wife is Secondary.

4) and the all important teaching question - what are the holidays like? :D I have a rough idea of this from a few years ago, wondering if anythings changed.

Thanks

[anto1208]

im only really guessing here but as far as i know for primary you have to have irish because one teacher does all subject you dont change class's , secondary you can specialise in one or two subjects .

saleries are good i heard 30,000 euro is average considering your on hols for :
secondary 3 months in the summer !!2 to 3 weeks at xmas 1 week at easter 1 week in october , you also finish work at 3 in the day

primary get about 6 to 8 weeks in the summer , and more or less the same at the other times .

so thats about 6 hours a day for 8 or so months and yet they moan !!

good teachers are like gold dust here but it is really difficult to get rid of rubbish ones so im not sure how much of a market there is here ,

[Poor Student]

For secondary you can only teach what subjects are inyour primary degree at Leaving Cert level and whatever you did in 1st year at Junior Cert level. The Irish requirement has been dropped for secondary school teachers. However seeming as Irish is compulsary and primary school teachers teach all subjects I cannot see how you could get by at primary level without Irish.

[CollegeTillIDie]

For secondary you can only teach what subjects are inyour primary degree at Leaving Cert level and whatever you did in 1st year at Junior Cert level. The Irish requirement has been dropped for secondary school teachers. However seeming as Irish is compulsary and primary school teachers teach all subjects I cannot see how you could get by at primary level without Irish.

He might get part time work filling in for people who are sick etc.

[sligoman]

3) Demand for teachers? I'm a primary school teacher - although do have secondary qualification too, my wife is Secondary.I know a certain secondary school in Sligo that could do with a few teachers to replace thier auld ones :rolleyes: :D

[sligoman]

you also finish work at 3 in the day:confused:, not in my school you didn't :mad:

[sligoman]

4) and the all important teaching question - what are the holidays like? :D I have a rough idea of this from a few years ago, wondering if anythings changed.Secondary Schools: 1 week off in October, 3 weeks at Christmas, 1 week in February, 2 weeks at Easter, 3 months from end of May to start of September.

[paul_oshea]

i forget the name of the exam, but to teach in a primary school you have to do an irish exam. A lot of people go over to sunderland and aberdeen etc to do teaching and then come back to ireland to teach, but they must get an irish qualification.

20,000 - 25,000 euro for a primary teacher

[noby]

As far as the Irish for primary, you can pick up work without it, but possibly not permenant. But a maternity or sick leave would get your foot in the door.
You can then do a summer course, which would include a week or so in a gaeltacht, probably connemara. It's fairly intense, I've heard.

There is a severe shortage of male primary teachers, so it might work to your benefit

[Aldini98]

Why come over here? You'll get ripped off in this country!!!!! Go to mainland Europe and teach English and enjoy a better standard of living.

[davey]

20,000 - 25,000 euro for a primary teacher

Really, thats terrible :(

Is there a difference between primary and secondary pay? if so, why? :confused:

[noby]

Its' not quite that low:

The Primary Teacher

Basic Information on Pay and Conditions

o The starting salary is _29,393 on a 25 point scale which has a maximum of _55,175. In addition, teachers who are 10 years on the maximum point of the salary scale are entitled to a long service increment of _2,130.

o Allowances ranging from _1,689 and _8,993 are payable in respect of educational qualifications. Special allowances are also payable to teachers in Gaeltacht schools (_2,807), in all-Irish schools (_1,450) and in island schools (_1,689).

o An allowance of _3,454 is payable to a Special Duties post holder while an allowance of _7,810 is payable to an Assistant Principal. Allowances ranging from _3,454 to _17,384 are payable to Deputy Principals, and for Principals they range from _8,534 to _27,294.

[paul_oshea]

got that off an old site, so was prolly pounds. sorry.

the aul fella is a teacher and he only works 20 - 25 hours a week now, as he has done what ever amount of years to get that. he is at the top bracket, but he reckons it takes a long long time to get there, even if you do those post 1,2 or whatever duties.

[anto1208]

Why come over here? You'll get ripped off in this country!!!!! Go to mainland Europe and teach English and enjoy a better standard of living.

no you dont try living in france and tell me they dont rip you off , you pay to drive on moterways it costs a mate of mine 45 euro to drive to paris ! then petrol is around 1 .50 a litre , you pay twice as much tax as us .

pints 9 euro in paris !!!

ireland is very cheap if you just bother to look around for a better deal .

[Macy]

ireland is very cheap if you just bother to look around for a better deal .
Yes John Minihan - sure we never liked Eddie Hobbs anyway... :D

[John83]

Secondary Schools: 1 week off in October, 3 weeks at Christmas, 1 week in February, 2 weeks at Easter, 3 months from end of May to start of September.
Plus staff meetings, in service days, etc. which mean that you'd only actually be teaching about 9 days a year.

[anto eile]

1) What is the current status regarding having a qualification in Irish? I heard a while back that people could be employed without it but had to gain the qualification within a certain timescale. Is this true? Any moves to get rid of this ridiculous situation ( imho).


4) and the all important teaching question - what are the holidays like? :D I have a rough idea of this from a few years ago, wondering if anythings changed.

Thanks

imagine an irishman being required to speak irish.god forbid :rolleyes:

secondary holidays.3months off from early june to late august/start september.
primary,2months off late june to late august

2 weeks at easter and 2 weeks at winter/new year

[anto eile]

ireland is very cheap if you just bother to look around for a better deal .
do you work for fianna fail??

[anto1208]

do you work for fianna fail??

no i do a strange thing like if i go to the pub and they charge 5 10 for a pint i dont just hand over the cash and complain about how expensive it is , i go to a different pub , same with hotels , restaurants , petrol stations , concerts .,taxi's etc etc

i know its a crazy concept but ye should try it , the amount of times ive heard some one say i was in a pub and they charged a fiver or more for a pint , just leave no one is forceing you to stay there . :confused:


the only thing i have a problem with is the tv licence which is licenced stealing , there is no other thing you have to pay for that gives you nothing in return !.
i pay tax i get roads to drive on and gaurds to protect me etc i pay a tv licence and i get nothing ! i help to send jerry ryan off to florida for 6 weeks allright but that not much good to me when i cant afford to buy food for the week but still have some guy snooping around my house peeking in the window to see if i have a tv to get 160 euro i cant afford of me

[Aberdonian Stu]

As far a demand goes it depends on what subjects you teach at second level as it varies wildly.

Oh and it's not Aberdeen that Irish people go to do teaching courses it's Aberystwyth in Wales. Aberdeen has a teaching college, it's part of Aberdeen Uni now actually, but the Welsh one is where irish folk go because of the large grants they get.

[davey]

imagine an irishman being required to speak irish.god forbid :rolleyes:



Whether we like it or not, Irish is a dying language. Indeed all efforts to resurrect it since Independence have failed - and will continue to do so. This is the reason why I feel the qualification stipulation is ridiculous. Why deny opportunity to talented people all over the world? I would accept that all people working in Ireland should have a cursory knowledge of Irish - if only for reasons of cultural integration. However the SCG exam is far from cursory and requires an in depth knowledge of the language. You have to pass a stringent oral exam - probably the only time you'll have a conversation in Irish in your working life. Of course Irish should be taught in Primary schools, but it should be done by specialist teachers.In the same way that other languages are taught in Primary school.

[Aberdonian Stu]

I don't claim Irish is alive and well but it has gone from being on life-support to being able to feed itself and walk freely, although it remains limited easily digestable food and needs help crossing the road.

The language is growing just very slowly. The stats of people LEARNING irish (not just punter joe who knows his cupla focal) and being educated through it continue to rise and demand for irish language education has never been higher in the history of the state.

So to say it's dying is unfair. Is it endangered? yes but so are 99% or the world's languages and dialects.

[Lionel Ritchie]

Herself is a fully qualified secondary school teacher with additional letters out the door and is still finding it extremely difficult to find work in the secondary system here unless you're willing to work/live in the Dublin area -which we are not.

I know a lot of graduates from the primary sector are finding it difficult to get work too ...and yes there is a dearth of male graduates in that sector.

As for some of the speculation on teachers holidays here -there's some fanciful stuff going on. BTW -I am NOT a teacher myself though I have taught part-time/resource teacher (art and music ..piece of p1ss compared to real teaching) . I'm a nine to five man who earns about the same (probably 10% less in truth) than what she'd have been on and I wouldn't swap with her.



1 week off in October. Sometimes. Sometimes a long weekend just.


3 weeks at Christmas. Pure fantasy. schools tend to finish the friday before Christmas and return on January 7th. Giving an earliest finish date of Dec 20th. Christmas hols are never more than a fortnight.


1 week in February. No way. Possibly a monday and tuesday for parent teacher meetings -that's it.


2 weeks at Easter, finish on ash wednesday and are back the following monday week -that's 7 days.


3 months from end of May to start of September. Absolute outside 2 months in the summer. Exams have to be supervised for the whole of June. If you decide not to do any in-service training in a given summer -yeah you'll get two months pretty much -about 6 weeks otherwise.

Beyond that I'll concede that their holidays are obviously still longer than ours in the private sector -but that's down to the fact they work with kids and also the fact that it's a damn stressful job. I know for example nurses have it extremely bad too and deserve about the same holidays teachers get and to be honest if we payed teachers and nurses twice what teachers are on -I still dunno if they'd be getting their worth.

I guess unless you've shared a home with one ( a teacher) you don't get to see it -but -as well as all the regular stuff you'd expect like being overcrowded, under-resourced, abused etc... we've been through the lot (I'm talking intimidation by pupils AND their pondlife parents, harassment, vandalism to homes vehicles etc, phone numbers and addresses needing changed...the works) and she's only teaching since the late 90's.


But back to our Scottish based couple. I'd skip it and go to the continent. There was a time I'd have advised the middle east (Abu Dhabbi, Jordan) as a mate of mine went there for two years and came home and bought a house. Note I didn't say "got a mortgage". He bought a house ...no debts, no loans.

But the world has turned a bit in the short few years since.