New figures have revealed that a total of £8.5 million has been spent in four years, with over half of that covering primary-school teachers.
Between 2015 and 2018, 37,257 days were covered by supply teachers in primary, secondary and fee-paying schools in the Island.
A spokeswoman for the government said there had been no significant increase in the employment of supply teachers, and the figures represented around 5% of teachers’ pay.
She said: ‘Supply teachers play a vital role in ensuring that our children’s education is not disrupted by their teacher’s absence – whether that is for illness, maternity leave, management duties or training. The use of supply teachers varies across schools, depending on the needs and context of the school, and includes cover for newly qualified teachers, who are released for half a day per week in addition to regular planning and preparation time. The cost of employing supply teachers is roughly £2 million a year, which represents roughly 5% of total teacher pay.
‘The figures for 2015 to 2018, which range between £2.1 million and £2.2 million, show that there has been no significant increase in the employment of supply teachers.’
Over half of the expenditure on supply teachers was for primary schools, with £5.043 million spent on 21,889 days.
In the past four years, the most money was spent in 2017, with £2.2 million paid out. That figure dropped by £84,000 in 2018, as did the number of supply days.
A total of 4,367 days were covered in secondary schools at a cost of £1,004,389, with 3,441 days covered in the fee-paying schools, costing £791,443. A higher number of days were classified in the freedom of information request as ‘other’, with 7,519 days costing £1.7 million.
The Jersey president of the National Education Union, Brendan Carolan, has said that the new pay offer means senior teaching assistants would be able to cover lessons.
He said: ‘The numbers are the role of the Education Department to investigate and analyse the reasons for this.
‘However, from the NEU perspective the new offer involved the creation of a new senior teaching-assistant grade that would be able to offer temporary cover, and clearly we were concerned that this might be good for our members who are assistant teachers but detrimental to those who are supply teachers.
‘However, if going forward there is a situation where need for supply cover outstrips supply, it’s a win-win all round.’
