Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, who is travelling on Government business.

A number of developments will impact on teachers in VEC schools during the coming school year. First, the commencement of section 30 of the Teaching Council Act 2001 will prohibit the payment of people employed as teachers in recognised schools unless they are registered with the Teaching Council. I take the Deputy's point in this regard. The second major development will be enhanced requirements from April 2013 for registration with the Teaching Council as a further education teacher. The requirement for registration will be increased from a degree-level qualification to a requirement to hold a teacher training qualification in addition to an undergraduate level award.

Individuals without recognised qualifications who were employed in a teaching position or eligible to be employed in a teaching position in a recognised school at the time of the establishment of the Teaching Council in 2006 were deemed registered with the Teaching Council in its first year. Teachers were advised at the time to seek registration with the council and to ensure that their registrations were maintained. If such people availed of this entitlement at the time and subsequently maintained their registrations, there is no change to their position. A dispensation was given at the time and there is no basis for it to be given again.

It has been the policy of the Department of Education and Skills for some time that only qualified and registered teachers should be employed by schools. Current recruitment procedures direct schools to ensure that teachers proposed for appointment to publicly paid posts must be registered with the Teaching Council and have qualifications appropriate to the sector and suitable to the posts for which they are proposed.

Since 2006, any unregistered person employed by a VEC in a teaching post has been on notice that, once section 30 became law, there would be no basis to continue paying him or her. Therefore, such persons can have no reasonable expectation of continued employment beyond the period of time that it takes the school to source a registered teacher. It is expected that section 30 will be commenced later in the school year. This will ensure that only registered teachers are employed in teaching positions in our schools. Separate provision will be made for urgent situations where no registered teacher is available.

Notice of the imminent commencement of section 30 and the Teaching Council's registration requirements has been in the public domain for some time. Sufficient time has been available for individuals to engage with the Teaching Council to gain registration. It is the Government's view that all teachers should be appropriately qualified. This is surely the minimum that our children deserve. The commencement of section 30 is intended to buttress that policy and will be to the advantage of ensuring a quality education for all.

See this speech in context