Maths Teachers

Donotpassgo

Hello, I'm a big lurker on this forum and was wondering if there's any demand for secondary school maths teachers. (my maths degree is approved by the TC). I do voluntary teaching in my area (and I love it) and work part time as I have a family. I was wondering if it would be worth my while to apply for the Grad. Dip. seeing as there has been so many cutbacks this year?

TheDriver

to be honest, any teaching jobs are hard to come by this year especially with the way cutbacks are going. Only thing is that there are loads of maths classes in every school and hence very good turnover of teachers in the area. A good number of maths teachers also are qualified in another area and not actually their number one choice and hence move into their preferred area when they can. Though should you do the dip, well its a lot of money for a slight chance of a job all the same, straight economic talking.

Powerhouse

TheDriver wrote: »

Though should you do the dip, well its a lot of money for a slight chance of a job all the same, straight economic talking.

In terms of economic talking there are a few factors to consider. The chances of a job without the dip are zero, so if the person has any teaching aspirations then they need to do it. A lot naturally depends on the opportunity cost of doing it. The OP is already doing volunteer teaching and working only part-time so it's not as if they are giving up a huge salary to do it.

As for the cost, while it's a fair bit of money to get together, if you get any work afterwards it would pay for itself very quickly. All you need to do is earn about 12k and the course has paid for itself, so I don't think anyone should be put off by the cost.

ManFromAtlantis

anyone know how much it costs to do the dip in uni. 12k sound high ? ta full / eve other options ta

clartharlear

It's about 6k in fees, but you have to consider the other expenses of college.

TheDriver

just remember lot of people do the Dip each year and jobs are not plentiful so 6k plus more is a lot if propspects aren't good, Have ing said that if you want to do it, then give it a whirl

Powerhouse

ManFromAtlantis wrote: »

anyone know how much it costs to do the dip in uni. 12k sound high ? ta full / eve other options ta

My understanding is that it's about 6k. I mentioned 12k, as that is the amount of money - roughly - that one would have to earn to recoup the 6k, after tax is taken into consideration.

Coolio

With the cutbacks, pretty much every school is in a position where not only can they not take on any more teachers they are looking to offload some or certainly reduce hours for those teachers on temp contracts/CIDs. That's certainly the case in Galway county

What you'll see happening is teachers moved around within a school to fill gaps rather than new teachers brought in.

Up to now, the average time from getting your Dip to getting a permanent job was 5 years and that's now likely to take longer now.

If you're prepared to just get a few hours here and there for a few years then go for it. Best chance of getting in to a school now is through maternity leave/career break contracts.

I know I'm prob making it sound bleak but as a maths teacher who's prob going to be out of a job this summer, I have at least one good reason to be sending a note of caution to you.

Best of luck with your choice.

ManFromAtlantis

if there is such athing as a better chance of getting a teaching job, whats the best background to have, ie would a science taecher have a better chance than say ebnglish, maths or whatever.
is there any subject that may be looking for teachers more than others.

thanks

Donotpassgo

Thanks everyone for their replies, I would like to know if anyone had any answers to the last contributor to this thread? What would be the subjects for which there would be a scarcity of teachers?

Coolio

Without being able to quote figures, I come across many ads for Irish teachers. There seems to be a lack of the around at the mo. Stay away from history english, business. All pure opinion based on the weekly search for new jobs posts and talks with school management.

clartharlear

Nobody is able to quote figures. They don't exist. Any talk of lack of Irish teachers or maths teachers* is purely extrapolating from anecdote. And, as we all know, the plural of anecdote is not data.
This is one of the aims of the teaching council in getting us all registered. Their system is definitely flawed, but at least they'll be able to say things like, there are 50,000 students doing LC maths this year and we have 2000 teachers registered as maths teachers. Do we need more or less?

*we do know that there were too many business studies teachers, because the colleges weren't able to accomodate them. But this is divorced from schools.

TheDriver

I must agree with history and english, lots of teachers out there. We put on ads for some subjects and you are flooded, some others and you get a very small number of applicants.