Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Regarding the shortage of subject teachers at secondary level, has the Department examined the possibility of encouraging first or final year arts degree students to take up those subjects? Many higher diploma teaching students opt for the subjects that they prefer or about which they are passionate, but teachers are normally flexible. If someone was into languages, he or she could think outside the box and do Spanish and German. Instead of leaving it to the teacher-to-be to choose a subject, the Department could go to the third level institutions and target arts students for maths, physics and science subjects. Arts degrees are more language oriented, but is targeting like that happening on the ground? English might be someone's passion, but if that student is good at one language, he or she might be good at a number of languages. A more targeted approach needs to be taken if there is to be a turnaround within a short number of years. The Department should be going to teacher training colleges and giving certain incentives to higher diploma students to take up particular subjects. For example, someone with a maths degree could be incentivised to specialise in an area where there is a need in our secondary school system. What is happening in that vein?