When Stephen Milligan, a qualified post-primary school teacher with eight years’ experience, decided to return to Ireland from Australia to spend time with his family, he thought he would be able to transition easily into teaching.
He started the process of registering to teach before he left Australia, as advised by the professional standards body for the teaching profession, the Teaching Council.
“It took about six months to get all of the documentation they required,” says Milligan. “It was no mean feat collating and supplying all this paperwork, but I respect the thorough degree of vetting required and was glad to be a part of that process.”
Despite acute teacher shortages when Milligan arrived in Ireland in July, he had not received any information about his registration status, apart from confirmation that he had passed a mandatory exam on the history of the Irish education system.
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Milligan, who has a bachelor of arts degree (history and English) and a master of teaching postgraduate degree (also history and English), managed to secure a teaching post in a Cork second level school, subject to confirmation of his registration.
Eventually, a year after starting the process, he received registration on the day he was due to start at the school – but he was in for a shock.
“It was for English, only; they didn’t give it to me for history,” he says. “I am baffled that this would occur in a climate where schools are desperate for any teachers, let alone experienced and passionate ones like myself.
Milligan says his history degree – which included a module on Ireland – was wide-ranging and comprehensive. Ironically, he says, it is not mandatory for Irish-qualified history teachers to have undertaken Irish history as part of their degree.
A spokesperson for the Teaching Council said that it is “aware of frustration sometimes being expressed by some teachers applying for registration” but “the most common cause of such frustration is the submission of applications that are incomplete”.
The council also says it has “made a number of changes to guidance and application documents to support teachers in ensuring that this does not occur”.
The spokesperson says that “once all documents are received by the Teaching Council, the assessment process is carried out within a 12-week timeframe”.
The the council receives approximately 800 requests annually for registration from teachers who have trained outside of Ireland.
While Milligan found the delays and receiving partial registration frustrating, teachers who wish to relocate from abroad to teach in primary schools in Ireland have found the process even more challenging and lengthy. They must obtain Irish language and, in most cases, religious qualifications.
Dallas Hartland was living in Ireland when she decided she wanted to train as a teacher.
“My aim was to pursue getting into teaching because it was something that I had always wanted to do,” says Hartland. “I investigated it here and it just didn’t seem like an option.”
Hartland believes that having Leaving Cert Irish as a prerequisite for teacher training courses makes the possibility of training as a primary teacher in Ireland untenable for many non-Irish nationals.
“Whichever way you cut it, it would be quicker to train as a medical consultant,” says Hartland.
She returned to Australia and obtained a bachelor of education at Macquarie University in Sydney.
“When I returned to Ireland, I was then subject to the registration process, in total, from starting my studies in 2005 until I was registered in Ireland in 2015, it took 10 years – a long road.”
This road was only navigable, she says, because she had the support from her family. “I don’t know how I would have addressed all the shortfalls had I not had two in-laws, who were both teachers.”
Hartland says there was little clear advice available to her and this slowed the process down.
“I wasn’t really getting a lot of guidance on where to start or what to do,” says Hartland. “I feel like if I’d been given more information, I could have addressed the requirements faster.”
A spokesperson for the council said that it has recently established a new online system that “makes it easier for applicants to track applications in real time and further enhances the efficiency of the council’s processing of applications”.
Rory Healy, principal at Scoil Mhuire na nAird, Co Wicklow, says teacher shortages are not going away and schools should not be forced to employ unqualified people or redeploy special education teachers.
“We are facing into winter, people are starting to get sick, substitutes aren’t available,” says Healy.
“It’s absolutely remiss of us all to put unqualified personnel in front of classes of children when there are qualified people available and willing to step into the fold,” says Healy. “But the bureaucracy prevents them from doing so. As a country, we really can’t stand over that and should not stand over that any longer.”
Hartland takes issue with some of the terminology used by the council, in particular with the term “shortfall” when it refers to applicants’ degrees.
“It may be their term but, coming from the outside, it’s quite demeaning, as though there were something sub-standard about my degree,” says Hartland. “This despite the fact that the Irish system has been trending towards and adopting the Australian education systems for years.”
The next bump in the road was a financial one. Hartland spent more than €5,000 on courses that had to be undertaken, including the Irish language qualification, Gaeltacht attendance and a certificate in religious studies, a mandatory requirement to teach in a primary school.
While there were financial and time-related costs involved when registering with the council, Hartland says the impact on her personal and family life were the most difficult.
As a mature student, Hartland was balancing her additional studies with starting a family. Additionally, as Hartland could not gain a permanent contract until she had full registration, the family had to delay applying for a mortgage.
Even though she was fully qualified, Hartland struggled to find work as a teacher. “I’d come back trained. I’d started to address all the ‘shortfalls’, and then to still not be getting work, it makes you feel like something’s wrong with you. Emotionally, I had a feeling of being an outsider, not being good enough and always having to prove myself.”
Working as a permanent teacher in St Aidan’s Senior National School in Tallaght for more than seven years now, Hartland’s determination paid off and her situation has changed. The experience of many other non-Irish hoping to teach in Ireland, however, has not.
Lauren Bradley is from New Zealand and found the registration process unnecessarily bureaucratic.
“Our education systems are reasonably comparable, you should be able to transition between these countries without having a problem,” says Bradley, “I shouldn’t have to go and email my lecturers to prove that the quality of my education was good. It’s a world-renowned education system.”
She has received registration with conditions because she does not have Irish and has found herself confined to working in special education rather than mainstream teaching.
Despite having no previous training in autism education, Bradley is not restricted from working in this area.
The overriding emotion from many teachers who have qualified from abroad, meanwhile, is frustration.
“The teachers are great, and the students are wonderful,” says Milligan. “But I would definitely warn anyone coming into Ireland from abroad to be prepared to deal with a bureaucracy that is fraught with frustration.”
Making teaching in Ireland a more attractive option for those who trained abroad would not only help schools address their substitution issues, but it would also enrich the education on offer here.
“I see what the kids have got from me being their teacher, as an Australian,” adds Hartland.
“The lack of non-Irish teachers in most schools is, Hartland believes, having a negative impact on students. They’re not seeing that diversity, they’re not seeing different points of view, different perspectives and that’s important, for the staff as well.”
