Rachel O’Grady had a better idea than many of her classmates what her career prospects might be when she started her four-year degree in early childhood care and education at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick.
“My sister worked in childcare,” she says, “so I was aware the pay was very low. But I did [the course] because I’m really interested in working with children,” she said.
However, she admits it is “tough to do a four-year professional degree to then face the prospect of earning the minimum wage”.
That, though, is the reality facing thousands of students as they approach the end of courses in early education around the country in coming months. Even with a four-year honours degree, pay for most would start at €13.65 an hour, just 15 cent above the national minimum wage.
There are prospects for progression in a sector that encompasses 4,500 private and community creches, Montessori schools and pre- or after-school facilities but even for promotional positions the minimum pay rates are strikingly low by comparison with other, generally publicly run, areas of education. Many creche managers can start at €17.25 an hour, which equates to about €35,000 a year, almost €8,500 less than a newly qualified primary schoolteacher. Despite everybody in the sector agreeing pay is far too low, though, and Government providing funding earmarked for increases, progress on improving it has been painfully slow.
The sector currently has a 24 per cent annual turnover rate, large numbers of vacancies and will need thousands more qualified staff over coming years to meet Government targets on professionalisation but those graduates best trained to work in it are walking away in droves.
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A group of Mary Immaculate College students told The Irish Times this week just a handful of the almost 80 fourth years due to finish their course in the summer intend to work in early learning and childcare.
It is a common theme in the sector, with some taking the courses with a view from the outset of using them as a way of getting into primary school teaching when they have not got the Leaving Cert points to pursue that directly. But there are many tales too of students choosing to work instead after graduation as special needs assistants in schools, other areas of education or sectors such as retail, because in every instance the pay and conditions are better.
“I do love the job and I love working with all the kids,” says O’Grady (22), from Kells, Co Meath. “You build up such a strong connection. And zero to five are the most critical years in a child’s life so the work is important but it doesn’t feel like that’s appreciated.
“More money would make a difference, I’d get paid more working in Aldi, but there’s more than that that needs to be done.”
O’Grady and some of her classmates express frustration at the lack of tangible recognition of the time, effort and money they have invested in gaining their qualification, perhaps €50,000 in fees and living expenses. They now intend to spend more on top of that in order to become teachers, which at least, they say, offers the prospect of making the money back over time.
“I’ve been working on the weekends at home,” says Kate Ring from Kilkenny, “and getting paid more for that work without doing any course ... That’s been so, so hard.”
All believe the course they have done over the past few years has been a valuable experience, equipping them to help the development of children at a critically important age but how, they ask, could they be expected to pursue a career that would make routine aspects of day-to-day life so unaffordable?
“The course has been very interesting,” says Edel Sweetman from Killarney, but she notes “you couldn’t get a mortgage on the pay in early years.”
Ring mentions a woman she worked with while on placement in an early education setting who had kids of her own and paid most or all of her wages to somebody else to mind them so she could work.
The students also talk about the different approaches and attitudes they have encountered among operators, staff and parents while on placement, with some putting far more emphasis on the educational aspect of the services than others.
“Some people think they just drop off children and they’ll go and play with their friends for a few hours and get a bite to eat, then home again,” says Conal Dunne, another fourth year student, from Limerick. “But there’s a lot of learning involved, it’s about preparing them for their life.
“I’m not criticising anyone. Before starting the course, I didn’t really know what goes into it myself but a lot of people don’t understand the level of detail involved at all.”
Or, suggests, Laura Cosgrave from Dungarvan, who works part-time in a childcare service since doing a placement there, how tough it can be. “I feel it is hard work, exhausting, but it’s so rewarding. And such an important role.
“Looking after all the children, you do build really strong bonds. And getting to know all the parents, it’s a lovely experience. So I think if you knew, going home on a Friday evening, you’d have a good wage coming out of it, it would make it a lot easier. Because it’s not that I don’t enjoy my job, I love my job. And it actually upsets me to think that I won’t be able to do it forever, because I enjoy it so much. It’s just too difficult with the current wage.”
And so all intend to take a master’s course in education to become teachers, with that profession’s better starting salary, annual increments, shorter hours and much longer holidays.
But, says Dunne, “as much as we are all saying we’d be better paid primary school teaching, no one is going into it for the money. It’s because we feel it’s what we want to do.
“In my case, I like the fact that they’re a small bit older. You can talk to them a bit about their interests. You can have a laugh and joke with them, which is that bit harder with the smallies.”
Sweetman, also expresses a preference for the sort of classroom environment and structure to be found in primary schools but believes this early childhood education degree will make her a better teacher.
It is hard to find anyone in the sector who is surprised by any of this. Industry body Early Childhood Ireland (ECI), which a majority of providers are affiliated to, has advocated for pay parity between early years educators and teachers, something they costed last year at an initial €446 million a year.
“It’s not just that you are looking at the starting salary, then thinking I’m only this far off being a primary teacher,” says Frances Byrne, director of policy at ECI. “It’s that with teaching there is certainty into the future. We have a really good workforce plan but we don’t have any joined-up strategy for attracting graduates or keeping them, that’s the reality. “
Back at MIC, course lecturer Dr Mary Moloney admits to being deeply frustrated by the number of graduates lost to the early years sector but takes consolation from the fact the qualification is well regarded and provides them with options both at home and, increasingly, abroad.
She believes these graduates should be considered qualified to work with younger primary schoolchildren, in junior and senior infants perhaps, an approach taken in some other countries, she says. That could save the students two years of study and thousands in costs while freeing up other teachers to work with older classes. “We need some creative thinking,” she adds.
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In the meantime, she admits, academic staff find it very hard to recommend to students that they actually work in the sector.
“Sure, who’d listen?” asks Sweetman.
