Northern Ireland teachers still wait for jobs boost

The Northern Ireland first and deputy first ministers announced a jobs lifeline as part of a £26 million drive to improve literacy and numeracy levels among pupils living in areas of social disadvantage.

Three months after Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness’ promise of offering immediate employment to teachers to help pupils struggling with English and maths, not one has been appointed.The North’s Department of Education now says it cannot say when anyone will be given a job, or how much the scheme will actually cost.

The jobs outlook in Northern Ireland is bleak with thousands of teachers unemployed. Opportunities are expected to become even more limited due to multi-million pound cuts to school budgets. The new plan is to give a total of 150 recently graduated teachers, who are without permanent employment, two year contracts to deliver one-to-one tuition to secondary pupils who are not projected to get C grades in their maths and English GCSEs.