Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The module is, in effect, mandatory. The Céim standards, the standards for initial teacher education published by the Teaching Council in November 2020, have strengthened the definition of “inclusive education” to include “any aspect of teachers’ learning aimed at improving their capacity to address and respond to the diversity of learners’ needs; to enable their participation in learning; and remove barriers to education through the accommodation and provision of appropriate structures and arrangements to enable each learner to achieve the maximum benefit from his/her attendance at school.” They go on to state, “The Council’s view of a truly inclusive approach to professional practice recognises that teachers encounter a diverse range of needs in the course of their teaching, regardless of setting.”