Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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87. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools which currently have a Droichead programme; and the number of students participating in same. [20549/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The Teaching Council is piloting a new model of induction and probation for newly qualified teachers (NQTs). This new model is called Droichead and it is a pilot project which will run from 2013 to 2016 and is being independently researched by the ESRI (Economic and Social Research Institute). Training for Professional Support Teams (PST) involved in the Droichead pilot, at school level, is provided by the National Induction Programme for Teachers (NIPT). Droichead is grounded in the belief that the people best placed to conduct the formal welcome into the profession are experienced fellow professionals, who know what is involved in teaching and learning in their school. These fellow professionals will themselves be supported through the provision of a range of structures and resources.

There are 52 participating schools in the current academic year - 12 at Primary and 40 at Post Primary. The number of Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) involved in the process is 76, 21 of these at Primary and 55 at Post Primary. So far for the next academic year of 2014/15 there are expressions of interest in the Project from 38 Primary Schools and 18 Post Primary Schools.