Ms Clare Griffin:

We regard every primary teacher as being fully trained to teach the SPHE-RSE programme and have confidence in their competence to do that because they attend initial teacher education for three years in the majority of instances, a period that is being increased to four years. The colleges of education have indicated that the time being allocated to specific training in SPHE-RSE has actually increased across the four-year period because of the overall time increase. We regard that as good provision at the initial teacher education stage. We recognise that this is a challenging area. There is no doubt about that. Many teachers report that it is challenging.

We are told that some 62% find this area challenging and that 12% find it very challenging and so training does not begin and end at initial teacher education stage. It is really important that teachers receive good quality continuous professional development, CPD, throughout their careers, and this is provided. From June 2014 to June 2017, some 3,135 teachers availed of CPD, which is a very high number for us to be able to stand over. The seminars, which were delivered by the professional development service for teachers, PDST, focused specifically on sex education and other elements of the relationships and sexuality in education, RSE, programme from senior infants to sixth class. It is important that schools have in place an RSE policy that is clear, implemented and monitored. The 3,135 teachers mentioned will have benefited from that type of input very recently in their careers.

The seminars also focused on the particular methodologies for teaching RSE that we regard as being important, these being methodologies that allow for discussion with students and allow them to engage with the issues at a level that is relevant to their own lives and also generate a safe classroom environment at primary level. A lot has happened in this space. We have referenced a number of times the amount of resources that are available online. These are up-to-date resources such that what students are accessing online gives them a good grounding in how to address specific issues.