Coronavirus: Substitute teachers 'surviving day-to-day'

About 3,800 substitute teachers are surviving "day-to-day" without work or pay due the coronavirus pandemic.

That is according to one post-primary substitute teacher who last worked two months ago.

The Department of Education (DE) has drawn up a £12m scheme to provide substitutes with income on a pro-rata basis.

But Education Minister Peter Weir has said the DE cannot pay for that scheme without additional funding.

As schools are closed to all but a few pupils due to the coronavirus pandemic, substitute teachers have no work and therefore no pay.

Those on a long-term contract - to cover maternity leave in a school for example - will have that contract honoured.

However, according to the department, that leaves about 3,800 others who teach on a regular short-term or daily basis without any income.

Dr Annelies Taylor is a substitute teacher of French and German in post-primary schools.

"A lot of people here work as substitute teachers because there aren't enough permanent jobs," she told BBC News NI.

"In the past year I've worked for about 10 or more schools.

"For a lot of younger teachers, it's the only way to get experience and for most subs it is their only source of income.

"This is the job that pays their mortgage and deals with their bills."

'Belt-tightening'

Subbing is Dr Taylor's sole income, but with schools closed her work has dried up.

"The last day I worked was two months ago," she said.

"So for two months I haven't had any work or calls for work.

"A lot of belt-tightening has gone on and we've got to be very careful about how we spend money.

"Fortunately with everything closed there are fewer opportunities to go out and spend money.

"The loss of income at this point is something that's going to stay with me for months and years."

Dr Taylor said that some of her substitute teacher colleagues were in very precarious situations.

"I'm talking to people who are very worried about not being able to pay bills, not being able to pay mortgages," she said.

"They're worried about basically day-to-day survival.

"You've got two adults in the house, plus children to care for and they're just incapable of working."

Peter Weir said he had concerns over funding for a scheme to pay substitute teachers

According to Mr Weir, the departments of finance and education have asked the UK Treasury for funding for a scheme to provide substitute teachers with a salary until the end of the current school year.

That scheme is expected to cost about £12m.

Under the proposal, substitute teachers would receive a pro-rata wage based on their previous level of income from January to March 2020.

'Less than perfect'

However, Mr Weir told MLAs on Stormont's Education Committee that he had "concerns" about whether external funding would be provided.

"We're still waiting for a formal response from Treasury," he said.

"However, I think there are concerns about whether that response will be positive or not.

"It is clear that if there is not a solution which comes from Treasury, that will have to be self-funded from within the executive to which a large proportion of that will come from within the Department of Education.

"There is incredible difficulty for people out there.

"Whatever solution is going to be there is going to be less than perfect.

"If it is left purely to finance it by the Department of Education it will be less than even less than perfect."

A number of MLAs raised the plight of substitute teachers with Mr Weir at Wednesday's education committee meeting at Stormont.

That included the Sinn Féin MLA Karen Mullan and the SDLP's Daniel McCrossan.

"Some of them are considering other alternatives to teaching because of how this has left them," Mr McCrossan said.