Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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38. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number and total funding of education centres in each of the past five years; the current overall budget for such centres; his plans to utilise such centres as a resource to support teacher CPD in view of the fact the policy on such CPD is developed by the Teaching Council; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16508/17]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I would like to ask the Minister about the number of education centres and the funding of them in each of the past five years given that there is an enormous appetite among teachers to have continuous professional development. They need it and they are anxious to acquire it. What is the budget in this regard? How many centres are there? Can the Minister tell us a bit more about it? The Teaching Council also has a role in this regard.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The network of education centres consists of 21 full-time and nine part-time centres.  Their principal activity is to facilitate the local delivery of national programmes of teacher professional development on behalf of my Department. They also organise a varied local programme of activities for teachers, school management and parents in response to demand.

My Department is the main source of funding for centres through direct grants for core and local course funding. Centres also receive funds for administration costs and room hire from Department-funded support services. The following table provides details of funding issued by my Department for each of the past five years. A total of €17.9 million issued to centres in 2016. It is up, although not dramatically, over the past number of years. It is up from just over €17 million.

Centres also have other sources of income including, hire of rooms, local partnerships and partnerships with other State bodies.

I have committed under the Action Plan for Education to a programme of actions for the further development of our CPD programmes and their organisation. Under this commitment, I will consider options for the legal model and potential functions of a centre of excellence to have oversight of the supports for school improvement and professional development of teachers, including research and identifying international best practice. The action plan commits to considering the potential of education and training boards, ETBs, to support the delivery of national programmes of continuing professional development. The core remit of education centres as providers of local and innovative training opportunities for teachers will be considered. I am committed to progressing this action item in the second quarter of 2017.

The Teaching Council functions in relation to continuing professional development provide that the council will advise me in relation to teachers’ CPD, promote engagement in CPD, conduct research and raise awareness of the benefits of teachers’ learning, among the public and teaching profession alike.

**The 2016 figure includes a minor works grant - 10% of core funding - which was introduced in 2016 to assist in the upkeep of the centres buildings.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Minister probably knows that we have a large and very enthusiastic number of young teachers, particularly in growing areas of the country like the greater Dublin region. These people have spent four or five years in college, depending on whether they are primary or secondary teachers. They then go out, very enthusiastically, to teach in the classroom at primary level or secondary level, and unless there is a really good programme of continuing professional development, once they have gone into the classroom, they can be left very isolated. The Minister addressed an excellent conference last week on the forthcoming changes in the primary curriculum which take into account the fact that 95% of children who have gone to primary school have already been at pre-school. There is a disconnect - a shock, in fact, for many kids - when they move from the play and activity-orientated pre-school into a much more regimented primary system. Some excellent ideas were put forward by people like Fergus Finlay as to how it might become more child friendly. What is going to be the role of continuing professional education to make some of the proposed changes work?

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Burton has raised a few issues. There is no doubt that this is a very important area. We need to look more deeply at its impact and at the quantity and quality, and that is why this review is being carried out. At the moment we have 206,000 CPD deliveries, which is up by 23% in the last four or five years. It includes substantial elements for new teachers, including induction under Droichead. It has special education, curricular support and the junior cycle. It also has school leadership as a significant element, with a new centre for school leadership. I share the Deputy's view that transitions are absolutely crucial, and we should look more closely at those transitions between pre-school and primary and between primary and secondary. Those are points where children can get lost in the system. The purpose of the review of the curriculum the NCCA is talking about is to see if we can better aligned those, both at the start and end of primary education, to ensure that children make those transitions more successfully. I agree with the upskilling of our teaching workforce in a time of very rapid change in education. The advent of technology and the power that can have to change the learning environment is an area we need to focus on and get good value from.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Could the Minister discuss the centre of excellence he spoke about? He also spoke about a potentially very significant new role for education and training boards, ETBs, particularly at primary level. ETBs only have a small number of primary schools in the country. Is the Minister suggesting that the ETBs might in some way become the vehicle for the education centres? Will the Minister ensure that the different levels of the teaching profession are consulted in full about any changes? The Minister spoke about remedial education and special education. Many people who go into careers in education and develop an interest in those areas would be unable to reach the level of skill and training they have without CPD.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The review is open-ended. It needs to look at best practice in the delivery of upskilling for teachers.

At the moment it is divided into a number of education centres and it does not have a central directorate which would identify the direction we should take in the longer term. We need to ask if we need more central policy direction in this area.

The education and training boards are a new creation and they are now developing a diversity of services and supporting clustering in different areas. It is worth examining whether they should have a new role in this area. Over time they will evolve additional support services for schools in their neighbourhoods and I am keen to consider that so that we have a local response to local needs on an even greater scale. This is open ended and there will be opportunities for all interest groups to contribute. It is of intimate interest to teachers and all stakeholders in education. We can deliver better in this area, over time, and I will continue to assess the situation accordingly.