Teachers struggling to find permanent jobs

It is unacceptable that a large number of teachers work in temporary jobs and need to reapply every year.

In an article in the Teachers’ Association’s ‘Skúlablaðið’ magazine, Jona Højsted, a committee member of the Teachers’ Association, calls on the Ministry of Culture to help solve the increasing problem of schools advertising temporary teacher jobs.

While Højsted cannot detail the number of temporary teacher jobs advertised this year, she notes that this is a recurring problem which the Teachers’ Association has been shedding light on for many years.

An enquiry from 2016 showed that no teacher had been offered a permanent job that year, while many had been offered temporary jobs. Last year, the association said there were teachers who had been in temporary jobs for 15 years.

Temporary jobs are indeed necessary, argues Højsted, but there are too many of them, and teachers in temporary jobs must be given better working conditions.

Herálvur Joensen, chairman of the Teachers’ Association, has for some time been campaigning for the same statutory maximum period for temporary jobs as is being used in other professions.

Translated by prosa.fo