Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 321: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills the number of persons employed, for any length of time in teaching positions for which they did not hold appropriate qualifications in the school years 2008/2009, 2009/2010 and to date in 2010/2011, at primary and secondary levels. [33469/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Teachers in primary and second level schools are employed by the managerial authorities of the schools.

The managerial authorities were advised by Circular Letter in May 2010 of the teacher registration and qualification requirements for appointment to primary and second level schools.

The terms of the Circular (Circular Letter 40/2010) provide that school authorities, as employers, ensure that teachers proposed for appointment to teaching posts for which salary grant is being sought must be:

1. Registered with the Teaching Council in accordance with Section 31 of the Teaching Council Act, 2001

and

2. Have qualifications appropriate to the sector and suitable to the post for which s/he is proposed.

The Circular allows for two exceptions to apply:

a) Where an employer can satisfactorily demonstrate that every reasonable effort has been made to recruit an appropriately qualified and registered teacher, an unqualified and/or unregistered person may be recruited pending the recruitment of an appropriately qualified and registered teacher and this provision must be inserted in the employment contract. The employer shall repeat the process to recruit an appropriately qualified and registered teacher within the period of any such contract and in any event within the school year. The person recruited will be remunerated at the unqualified rate.

b) In the case of an appointee who has applied to the Teaching Council, remuneration will be at the rate for unqualified persons pending the decision of the Council. This provision must be inserted in the employment contract. When registration for the sector and recognition of qualifications for the purpose of the post is achieved then incremental salary will be allowed from the date of registration. Otherwise the employer shall repeat the recruitment process within the school year. (A copy of the full Circular Letter is attached for the information of the Deputy).

In the 2009/10 school year 129 primary and 33 post-primary unqualified staff were employed on contract for the school year. Information for the current school year is not yet available as Boards of Management are continuing to make appointments and they are being processed by my Department at present.

Circular 0040/2010

To: The Managerial Authorities of Recognised Primary, Secondary, Community, and Comprehensive Schools

and

The Chief Executive Officers of Vocational Education Committees

Teacher Recruitment

Registration and Qualifications

The Minister for Education and Skills, in accordance with the authority conferred by section 24 of the Education Act 1998, directs that school authorities, as employers, ensure that teachers proposed for appointment to teaching posts for which salary grant is being sought must be

1. Registered with the Teaching Council in accordance with Section 31 of the Teaching Council Act, 2001

And

2. Have qualifications appropriate to the sector and suitable to the post for which s/he is proposed

The following exceptions will apply

a) Where an employer can satisfactorily demonstrate that every reasonable effort has been made to recruit an appropriately qualified and registered teacher, an unqualified and/or unregistered person may be recruited pending the recruitment of an appropriately qualified and registered teacher and this provision must be inserted in the employment contract. The employer shall repeat the process to recruit an appropriately qualified and registered teacher within the period of any such contract and in any event within the school year. The person recruited will be remunerated at the unqualified rate.

b) In the case of an appointee who has applied to the Teaching Council, remuneration will be at the rate for unqualified persons pending the decision of the Council. This provision must be inserted in the employment contract. When registration for the sector and recognition of qualifications for the purpose of the post is achieved then incremental salary will be allowed from the date of registration. Otherwise the employer shall repeat the recruitment process within the school year.

Special Schools

The position remains that special schools must recruit teachers qualified to teach in primary schools except in the case of special schools that cater for pupils of post-primary age where it is sanctioned by this Department as being appropriate to appoint teachers with other qualifications.

Conditional Registration

A teacher conditionally registered with the Teaching Council will be remunerated on the teachers incremental salary scale. This is conditional on continued compliance with the terms of registration within the period prescribed by the Teaching Council and this condition must be inserted in the employment contract. In the event that conditional registration lapses then from that date, remuneration will be at the rate for unqualified persons and the employer shall repeat the recruitment process within the school year.

Application

The terms of this circular are applicable to all new appointments from 1st September, 2010.

This circular supersedes all previous circulars, memoranda, rules and regulations in relation to this area including Circular 24/00.

Matters relating to registration of teachers are appropriate to the Teaching Council, Block A, Maynooth Business Campus, Maynooth, Co. Kildare. Email: info@teachingcouncil.ie

Please ensure that copies of this circular are provided to all members of the Board of Management/Vocational Education Committee and its contents are brought to the attention of all teachers in your employment including those on leave of absence.

This circular can be accessed on the Department's website under www.education.ie Home — Education Personnel — Post-Primary/Primary — Circulars and Information Booklets — Recruitment Policies.

All enquiries regarding this circular should be e-mailed to: teachersna@education.gov.ie

D. Tattan

Principal Officer

Schools Division

May, 2010

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 322: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills her plans to amend the Teaching Council Acts and Regulations to strengthen enforcement of the requirement that unqualified and unregistered teachers can be hired only where there is no qualified and registered teacher available. [33470/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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It is the policy of my Department that only qualified personnel should be employed by schools. Unqualified personnel should not be appointed except in exceptional circumstances and then only when all avenues for recruiting qualified personnel have been exhausted and even then only for quite limited time periods. It is for this reason that Section 30 of the Teaching Council Act 2001 is to be amended. These amendments are contained in the Education (Amendment) Bill which was published yesterday. The amendment of the section will include provision for it to be regulated that a school may only employ unregistered personnel on a time limited basis in exceptional circumstances.