Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I shall only use a few minutes. I welcome the Minister to the House. Much of what I was going to discuss has already been covered so I shall talk briefly about initial teacher education and entry requirements for teacher education programmes. My questions relates to the Minister's recent announcement about the politics in society module to be introduced for the leaving certificate course. What arrangement will be put in place to include teachers in the programme? When will the course be recognised by the Teaching Council as being suitable for teaching politics in society under the new curriculum?

Earlier the Minister said that in the interim, the council has produced a new set of criteria for registration on the basis of qualifications in post-primary subjects from 2017 onward. That provision will be important for students entering their first and second year of a degree in terms of module choice. What about those who have finished their primary degrees and masters, etc? Let me give myself as an example. If I wanted to become a politics in society teacher following my term in the Seanad would my course be recognised and if so, when would that be announced? When would I be able to study for a HDip course and achieve a qualification that would allow me to teach politics in society in a school? Many students and graduates of politics are greatly interested in such a job. There has also been talk about reducing the voting age. I attended the Constitutional Convention and part of the process was how to educate young in order to get them to engage in the process and want to vote. The new curriculum will feed into that aim in a big way. How will teacher education feed into the goal to have politics in society?