Ms Jill Fannin:

The committee will be aware that quite a number of higher education institutes, HEIs, in Ireland provide initial teacher education for qualification and subsequent registration as a teacher at primary and post-primary levels. All those programmes of initial teacher education provided by the HEIs have to be accredited by the Teaching Council and meet certain standards. In 2020 the Teaching Council developed a new set of standards for initial teacher education. That is called Céim. Building on the previous set of standards, which were probably about ten years old or thereabouts, it sets out to develop further the strengths and skills teachers on qualification need to have. The Céim booklet sets out seven core elements which are supposed to underpin all aspects of programmes of initial teacher education. One of those is inclusive education. There are others, such as global citizenship education; professional relationships and working with parents, which is quite important in this context; professional identity and agency; creativity and reflective practice; literacy and numeracy; and digital skills.

It is clear that inclusion must underpin all aspects of initial teacher education programmes. Individual higher education institutions, HEIs, will give effect to that in different ways. Each programme will vary depending on the method the provider has decided to put in place. All of the programmes are at a very advanced stage of accreditation. Some have already been accredited under the Céim standards and the remainder are being done now. At the end of this year, we expect to have all programmes through the revised accreditation process under Céim.

Céim requires an inclusive approach to teachers' practice which recognises the diverse needs that teachers will encounter throughout their career, including additional learning needs, for example, autism, dyslexia and dyspraxia, as well as needs associated with linguistic, socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. That is the broad brush approach to inclusion.

Earlier this year, the Minister published the initial teacher education policy statement. It sets out to build on the Céim standards and to consider how HEIs are putting into practice the standards set out under Céim. There are a number of actions in respect of inclusion and strengthening the student teachers' experience around inclusion. Some of them relate to having a school placement in a special education setting. As well as that, the Teaching Council will report to the Department and the Minister in the fist half of 2024, after all the programmes have been through their accreditation cycle, on how that element of inclusive education is being embodied in those programmes. That is the up-to-date position. We have approximately 2,000 primary and 2,000 post-primary initial teacher education students going through the system and graduating each year.