Ms Mary Cregg:

I will address the first question on the NCCA. This is very important work the Department is supporting. A full-time education officer is assigned to the NCCA who is a Traveller and has been doing significant work in this area. Broadly speaking, the initiative in the NCCA seeks to develop upon the audit, which was published by the NCCA in 2009, providing research and information on aspects of Traveller history and culture, gathering examples of practice and work from early years, primary and post-primary, that will support teachers in their work and also identifying resources and initiatives available to support teachers and practitioners. The NCCA is not itself responsible for training but the work being done by it feeds into the professional development service for teachers, which informs the work that happens in the classroom. The NCCA is also doing intercultural guidelines for schools. These were previously published approximately 15 years ago, but will be updated in 2022, given the changes that have taken place in the interim. That will also inform the continuing professional development for teachers.

There are a range of continuing professional development, CPD, initiatives, based on the concept of inclusive education, which have been introduced in recent years. CPD in social, personal and health education, SPHE, at primary and post-primary is continuing and through this, teachers can address teaching children respect for and appreciation of human and cultural diversity through the SPHE curriculum, for example. There will also be changes in initial teacher training. I will defer to my colleague, Dr. Doody, on that. I will also ask him to address the leaving certificate.

Higher education falls under the remit of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, but the underlying question is on ICT provision. The Department supplies funding to schools, which in turn can provide supports to students. Moreover, the Department will receive funding of €50 million under the national recovery and resilience plan and the details of that scheme will be announced shortly. There are ongoing efforts on that but the key piece is maintaining the links with schools, between the schools and the pupils.