Professor Lisa Looney:

I am a primary school teacher by background so I think the quality of teaching is crucial. At Hibernia College, there is a professional masters programme and we have trained more than 11,000. I have been there for the past ten years. I have seen huge growth in the number of females coming through with high-level skills in maths. Unfortunately, at post-primary, they are not choosing to become post-primary teachers in those subject areas. There is a good base of primary school teachers. The draft primary curriculum is moving towards more technology, more critical thinking and those types of skills, which will do a lot. We will never stop needing continuing professional development for teachers at a very high level. The closer we get to the teacher in the classroom, the more impactful the change will be. We must be able to model good practice with our teachers, show them what it looks like and bring industry and higher and third level into the classroom so teachers can see what it is all about. I am concerned we are not seeing that at post-primary level. It is a huge area we may need to look at collectively. We must examine upskilling programmes for teachers. We talk about teacher supply and the lack of teachers in areas. There are a cohort of teachers who are excellent at their jobs and, perhaps, with another 60 credits of upskilling, could teach maths, biology or engineering and could transfer. We need to examine more technology and using shared teachers across the system. If we do not get the teaching right, all the other things do not fall into place. We must focus on that quality at this point and investing in that, at primary, post-primary and initial teacher education level.