Eligibility For Employment

Boards of Management are obliged to recruit and employ fully qualified primary teachers for any vacancy in the school, regardless of the duration of the vacancy – please refer to DES Circular 0031/2011.

There are no circumstances under which a Board of Management can engage a person who is not qualified as a primary school teacher and commit to retaining that person for the full duration of a teacher’s absence on maternity leave, parental leave, career break etc.

It should be noted that a post-primary qualified teacher is not fully qualified for the purposes of appointment as a primary teacher.

In the event that no suitable qualified teacher applies for a post the Board must outline to the Department the efforts made to secure a qualified teacher and the circumstances that necessitated the appointment of a person who is not qualified as a primary school teacher pending the appointment of a qualified primary school teacher.

In exceptional circumstances (i.e. where an employer has made all reasonable efforts to appoint a registered teacher but none is available to take up the position in question), a school is permitted to employ a person who is not a registered teacher.  Such a person will be remunerated at the unqualified rate of pay, and for non-consecutive periods of no more than 5 consecutive school days (as per Des Circular 0031/2011).  In accordance with the resolution adopted at Annual Congress 2011, as and from 1 September 2011 all INTO members are directed not to work with unqualified personnel employed in any teaching capacity in a primary school.

The CEC has also decided to direct principals not to certify any unregistered person as competent and capable of acting in a teaching capacity. 

The procedures for the appointment of teachers as outlined in Appendix D of the Governance Manual for Primary Schools (2015-2019) must be adhered to at all times.

Summary of Recognised Qualifications for Employment

The table below summarizes the eligibility of recognised primary teachers for appointment to various permanent and temporary posts in primary schools.

Recognised Post-Primary teachers teaching in Primary Schools

Special Schools

Post primary teachers may apply for posts in special schools where a proportion of the pupils attending the special school are of post-primary age (i.e. 12 years or older) and where second level programmes are being provided by the school, e.g. Junior Certificate Schools Programme, Leaving Certificate Applied Programme.  If such a teacher is offered a post, details of the teacher's qualifications should be submitted to the Special Education Section of the Department for sanction of the appointment.

Mainstream Schools

Recognised post-primary qualified teachers cannot be appointed to permanent posts in mainstream primary schools.