Results 10,021-10,040 of 19,632 for speaker:Norma Foley

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: I want to thank the committee for inviting me to attend. As we meet here I am deeply conscious, as I know the committee members are, of the recent terrible tragedy in Donegal. Words cannot describe the immensity of the loss that has been felt, and will continue to be felt, by the community of Creeslough and by all those who have lost a family member or a loved one. These are incredibly...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: With regard to the junior cycle, it should be noted that we had two sittings of the leaving certificate this year. That was important and the right thing to do. We also had to provide students with an opportunity to appeal results where they wished to do so, as we do every year. As a result of a landmark legal ruling some years ago, the traditional format whereby junior cycle results were...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: I thank the Deputy. As he will be aware, an almost entirely new junior cycle curriculum has been made available. Only recently, the entire cohort of subjects at junior cycle level was provided for. There is a body of work to be done in reviewing how the junior cycle is working. That review is ongoing. We will await its outcome.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: The Deputy is suggesting introducing specialist teachers at primary school level.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: The Deputy is quite correct to acknowledge the great richness provided for in our primary schools and the excellence of the staff providing education. The policy statement on initial teacher training will be published before the end of the year. We are consistently looking at ways to continue to support teachers in delivery. The Deputy made specific reference to languages and how best to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: I congratulate those in the primary school system who offer a great diversity of expertise across a wide variety of areas.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: Some initial teacher education programmes facilitate that type of approach. I acknowledge that. I also acknowledge the benefit of practical experience in the classroom, which I know from my own experience. We have seen the manner in which students have come on board with us, particularly during the Covid pandemic. I further acknowledge our summer provision programme, in the delivery of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: We have run significant and successful campaigns every year to promote teaching as a preferred career. In fact, we have seen year-on-year increases in the number of applicants via the Central Applications Office, CAO, and that is a positive. At post-primary level, there has been an increase of almost 17%, with an increase of just short of 10% across the board. I do not have any control...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: I do not have the breakdown of that. It is a rounded number of 3,400. I can get the figure for the Deputy.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: I will have to check that for the Deputy. They are specialised questions. Of the 3,400 we have available, in light of the increased uptake we see year on year via the CAO, we are satisfied that we have sufficiency. Furthermore, the Deputy will be aware that for primary schools, the demographics are falling year on year. As for influence over the private sector, that is the same as the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: There is a clear teacher supply action plan within the Department. That plan involves engagement with a variety of partners and educational stakeholders, not least in respect of demand and supply. The higher education institutions, HEIs, are involved in that action plan. We take great confidence from the fact that, via the CAO, insofar as teaching is a first option, we have seen an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: One of the key factors in senior cycle reform has come from extensive engagement with many partners in education and specific voices in education, most especially those of students themselves, and they have been clear about the need to spread the assessment load. They have been very articulate in that respect. Equally, many of the senior cycle programmes, such as the leaving certificate...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: We have an ambitious programme of reform that, as I said, is centred on student well-being. In the main, anybody looking at this will say affording students an opportunity to spread the assessment load over two years will benefit them. As I said, this is already embedded in the leaving certificate applied and it is very much an opportunity for students to avoid feeling all of the burden of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: This scheme involves a significant investment and will benefit more than 540,000 students. The scheme will take a burden away from parents and guardians. It also will ensure that no student is limited by an absence of textbooks. We have between now and next September to work this through this scheme. It was always my preference that the scheme would be introduced in schools and worked...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: Yes, there will be every opportunity. The system that will be introduced will be on the back of significant engagement with stakeholders such as schools, parents, publishers and retailers, so everyone within that space. That engagement will begin immediately.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Education Issues: Engagement with the Minister for Education (12 Oct 2022)

Norma Foley: Indeed, there is. We are seeing significant supports being made available to promote the Irish language. Is the Deputy specifically referring to paper 1 being moved?