If life had gone in a different direction, I would have been an English teacher, and I think I would have been quite happy in that vocation, teaching teenagers to write essays and analyse the works of Eavan Boland. But in the 20-something years since I did my Leaving Cert, teaching as a career has changed considerably.

Teaching has a lot going for it – the satisfaction of guiding children, a steady career and the holidays. Yet there’s a growing crisis around recruitment and retention.

This was top of the agenda this week at the three teacher unions conferences held by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO), the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) and the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI).

The crisis is most acutely felt in Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow, where the cost of living is higher and a teacher’s salary doesn’t stretch as far. In this academic year, 50% of teacher posts went unfilled in these counties. But the pressure stretches countrywide into towns, villages and rural schools. There is now a shortage of 950 teachers in the primary school system, while one in five secondary schools have had to drop subjects because they just don’t have the staff to teach them.

So what’s going on? Why is this career – one which has always been held in high regard – struggling? Over the Easter, I spoke to my teacher friends who told me there is a different level of pressure these days. More paperwork, pressure from parents and more children with additional needs are all factors.

Many readers will remember a time when a teacher would never have been questioned. We have thankfully come a long way since the days of corporal punishment – but some would argue that the level of respect between teachers and students is at an all-time low. Those that I spoke to were keen to stress that most parents are ‘amazing’. And yet, there are situations where a child is not progressing in the classroom and instead of a mirror being placed on contributing factors in the home, there is more pressure being placed on teachers to be the driver of the child’s development.

There’s also a different level of needs in the classroom. Looking back 20, 30 years ago, if a kid wasn’t great at reading or slow at their sums, they often got left behind. Now with a greater level of education and understanding, things have improved significantly. If a teacher sees signs of autism, ADHD, dyslexia or other additional needs, this is being highlighted to parents so supports can be applied for, to help that child reach their full potential.

To get there however, requires a long journey and the paperwork is intense for teachers. One told me, “The services are shocking and there is a massive backlog. You have to put a huge amount of effort into these forms, getting the wording right, or your pupil will be at the bottom of that list, and you want more for them.” And yet there isn’t a teacher in the land being paid a cent extra for that effort. Teachers now have more responsibility, yet there’s less staff in the system and 64% of Irish teachers in leadership roles now feel burned out, according to an ASTI survey.

This week, Education Minister Helen McEntee announced a package of measures, one of which is to offer young teachers a permanent contract after one year. This is welcome and will help the recruitment process but a lot more needs to be done when it comes to retention and keeping those teachers in the classroom.