THE principal of the north's largest Irish-medium school has called for more teachers to be trained in specialist subjects in order for the school to be able to provide more A-Levels, saying that the school is paying out of its own pocket to train teachers to plug gaps in its workforce.
Speaking as Coláiste Feirste begin another school year, Mícheál Mac Giolla Ghunna said that although teachers were coming out of training colleges with subjects such as Irish or History, finding teachers for more specialist subjects, such as Home Economics, Maths and Technology proves to be more difficult.
"At the moment, specialist teacher recruitment is one of our biggest challenges. Irish-medium education is growing so quickly, and teachers aren't coming through the colleges at the moment."
The school took the decision several years ago that it would identify gaps in teaching staff and put teachers through degrees in order to fill those gaps. The school pays for this out of its own pocket.
"They're great teachers, who are passionate about Irish-medium education but they maybe just don't have that particular expertise," said Mac Giolla Ghunna.
He continued: "For example, if a teacher doesn't have a Maths degree but we need a Maths teacher, we can put that teacher through a degree ourselves, and we pay for that ourselves.
"We have put three or four teachers through degrees in recent years, especially in Maths. A couple of other teachers are sitting a Technology course at the minute. But these things take time and money, and it can be challenging in the interim."
The school has worked closely with the vocational college Gaelchúrsaí in recent years, where pupils can take apprenticeships in areas such as Hairdressing or Media Studies.
Mícheál praised the introduction to the Assembly of the Irish-medium Education (Workforce Plan) Bill, by Sinn Féin's Pat Sheehan.
"The growth of the sector is the biggest reason for the lack of teachers. There was no planning done for specialist subject teachers. There has to be an investigation into where the gaps will be, and a plan made now to fill those gaps."
Meanwhile, Mr Mac Giolla Ghunna spoke about the need for Coláiste Feirste's site to expand, saying that it had well exceeded capacity on the current location.
"We have been well over one thousand pupils for a number of years. We only have space for six, seven, eight hundred," he said.
It was reported in the Andersonstown News during the summer that an architectural firm had been appointed to oversee the redevelopment of the old Corpus Christi site for an expanded Coláiste Feirste. The Falls Road principal said nothing has been confirmed about that yet. Plans to open a new campus for the school in North Belfast were shelved several years ago.
"The Department of Education are conducting a feasibility study, and they'll come back in a year's time with their decision. We have been discussing this for the last six or seven years with the Department. They knew there'd be a crisis. They have been discussing more accommodation since then, but there is still no permanent solution, especially regarding North Belfast."
