Some 3,000 teachers - at primary and post-primary level - are on career break this academic year
Since 2014, the fitness enthusiast has been working, latterly as vice-principal, in Sacred Heart, Sandringham, a school of 250 pupils in the southeast suburbs of the city, a half-hour journey from the city centre.
“They [the Irish Government] don’t look after you [as a teacher],” Byrne says, however she is keen to stress that she is “proud” to come from Ireland, a place she “dearly loves”, especially when returning to see family and friends. Joanna Byrne, from Co Wicklow, has been teaching for the last two years in a primary school on the westerly outskirts of Calgary, Canada
Byrne initially intended to emigrate for one year, “but once you go it’s very hard to come back”, she says. “There are more opportunities abroad. Day-to-day I don’t think we’d be as happy in Ireland compared to Calgary.” After teaching for three years in Athlone Community College, Co Westmeath, she and her husband, a teacher in Roscommon, obtained career breaks in 2018.
Aoife McHugh, originally from Lanesborough, Co Longford, is a secondary school teacher working in Abu Dhabi There are also challenges to living in Abu Dhabi such as the absence of family and friends, with whom McHugh keeps in almost daily contact. “Illness and sickness can be difficult for those who are away from family,” she says. “But your friends here become your family.”
“Shelving the career break for teachers would be hypocritical,” says Ross Taylor , who works in a secondary school in Hammersmith, west London, but hails from Laytown, Co Meath.,” he adds. “They should make it a more attractive profession. They should be supporting people to buy houses. It’s not rocket science.”
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