Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Harris raised two questions about teacher education and learning from other people's experience with SNAs. Following recommendations from an international review group, called Initial Teacher Education, we have decided to implement a recommendation on the rationalisation of teacher education provision. That is on top of a decision made on implementing the literacy and numeracy strategy, whereby Irish primary school teachers would now have an educational period of four years rather than three. Those four integrated years would focus on acquiring pedagogic skills, rather than getting half courses as quasi university arts courses. There has been an academic drift in terms of course provision to bring colleges historically out of the teacher training space into a university space. This saw a migration within the curriculum towards a third-level arts degree of a generic kind, rather than an educational qualification with the focus on pedagogical skills.

As I said earlier, the quality of teacher training and teachers is universally accepted as being the key to great outcomes. So the period will be for four years with the focus on pedagogical skills and two years for the H.Dip. at second level, again with the focus on pedagogical skills. There will probably be a change in the way that secondary school teachers typically evolved whereby they were in a school and went to the local university. Let us say it was St. Joseph's College in Galway, known as "the Bish"; they are well regarded within the school, go into university, which is the other side of the cathedral in Galway, do three or four years there, come back to "the Bish" to do their H.Dip. and end up being a secondary school teacher in the same space. From cradle to grave, therefore, that is their educational experience. Some of them turn out to be wonderful teachers, do not misunderstand me, but they do not necessarily have a wider life experience. It means that they are not necessarily equipped to teach in other teaching environments.

It would be my objective - and we are still in the process of evolving this - to ensure that in order for teachers, particularly at second level, to be qualified and have experience in their training and apprenticeship period before becoming permanent, they would have taught in the free voluntary VEC sector and possibly in some areas of further education as well. In that way, they would have a range for dealing with a wider community.

I am not sure what we have got from special educational needs assistants. We are conducting research within the Irish situation to see how effective special educational needs assistants are. In theory, special needs assistants should work effectively to make themselves redundant. However, a dependency situation arises. While the recipient of the special needs assistant may become independent in terms of toilet training, other manifestations of dependency may emerge. In some cases, there is a problem at the end of primary school if they have developed such a personal relationship with the SNA - and this has been communicated to me in individual cases - that the SNA should stay with them going into second level. While that is extremely understandable for an individual case, and very emotionally charged, it is not what the SNA was designed to be in the first instance. A new kind of need has expressed itself in that regard. The NCSE is doing some research in this area and I will come back to the committee about the Irish experience. Deputy Harris also suggested that we examine what other countries are experiencing in that area. I am informed that the bi-annual meeting of the European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education will take place here in mid-May 2013, although the venue has yet to be confirmed. That will be an opportunity to share best experience and best practice.

I think I have covered everything, Chairman.