Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 21 May 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills

Regulation of the English Language Sector: Discussion (Resumed).

Photo of Sorca ClarkeSorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the witnesses for attending. I will follow up on a statement made by Mr. Moynes. I understand where he is coming from in terms of safeguarding reputations, the high quality of education and the false prospectus that has been put out there. One issue raised both with the committee and also with me is that students are restricted to working between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on their visas. This is a barrier to them accessing a supplementary level of education that may have been identified as a need when they arrived or of accessing some courses they wish to pursue. Has any consideration been given to having greater flexibility in that regard? Maybe "rebalancing" is the correct term to use when it comes to those restricted hours.

Ms Grennan may want to take my next question as she mentioned that she is also an inspector. She spoke of legislative guidelines around CPD and supporting and nurturing younger teachers coming through. Are they guidelines or are they enforced recommendations? Will this sector ever get to a point where there will be the equivalent of the whole-school evaluation that takes place in primary and post-primary education?