Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ensuring that every child's experience in school is positive and that they have qualified, engaged teachers available to support them in their learning is a priority area of action for the Government. Budget 2024 contains a range of measures that demonstrate the commitment to continued investment in our education system. In addition to numerous actions taken in recent years to address teacher supply, a number of specific, targeted measures will be introduced with the new funding provided in budget 2024. These include a professional masters of education incentive scheme, funding for additional teacher upskilling programmes and increasing the number of posts of responsibility. A professional masters of education, PME, incentive scheme will be introduced for newly qualified teachers graduating in May 2024. These newly qualified teachers who graduate with a PME will, subject to some conditions, be eligible for an incentive payment of up to €2,000. This incentive payment will be paid to eligible primary and post-primary teachers in 2025. It will recognise the costs that PME students incur when completing their initial teacher education, assist them with these costs and encourage suitable candidates to consider a career in teaching.

Additionally, there will be an expansion in the number of upskilling programmes available. These programmes, which are free of charge to all teachers, increase the number of teachers who are qualified to teach in-demand subjects and reduce the level of out-of-field teaching. These new subjects in terms of upskilling include Irish, French, politics and society, and computer science and will be in addition to the existing upskilling programmes in maths, physics and Spanish. Also, an additional 1,000 posts of responsibility will be provided in the school system for the 2024-25 school year. This is in recognition of school leaders and of the role they play in improving educational outcomes by creating a positive school climate and environment, as well as motivating and empowering educators and learners within their school communities.

These new measures are in addition to a range of targeted measures that I have already introduced in recent times, including at primary level my approval of 610 additional places on initial teacher education programmes for this and the next academic year. I recently met with the primary teacher initial education providers on continuing existing flexibilities that enable student teachers to support schools, either while on placement, or in a substitute capacity. In 2023, more than 2,700 student teachers registered with the Teaching Council and provided valuable support to schools as substitute teachers.

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