Who is teaching your child? The issue of unqualified subject specialists in Northern Ireland

There is a growing concern throughout the UK and beyond about the lack of suitably qualified post‐primary teachers in some subject areas, particularly mathematics, design and technology and the sciences. This paper reports on a survey of teacher qualifications in Northern Ireland which indicates that a significant percentage of teachers are unqualified in the areas of mathematics, physics, ICT, history and Irish, and that Key Stage 3 teachers tend to be less well‐qualified than those at Key Stage 4 or post‐16. Unqualified teachers are less likely to be found in the grammar sector than the non‐grammar sector.