Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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33. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the amount per student Teagasc is spending on agricultural training and education in its own agricultural colleges compared to such training and education it is delivering through private agricultural colleges; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42799/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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This is an operational matter for Teagasc who have statutory responsibility for the delivery of education and training programmes to the agriculture sector. In the region of 3,700 learners participated in Teagasc further education provision and higher education linked provision in 2013. Typically, over two-thirds of these learners attend the seven colleges in the Teagasc network with the balance attending part-time and distance programmes at 12 Regional Education Centres. The seven colleges comprise four Teagasc owned colleges and three private run colleges located in Mountbellew, Pallaskenry and Gurteen who deliver education courses on behalf of Teagasc.

Teagasc is also a significant provider of specialised short courses to adult farmers and agri- industry covering a wide subject area including agri-environment, farm safety, milk quality, food safety, organic farming etc. Typically, in excess of 5,000 adult farmers and industry personnel participate in short term training programmes annually. In addition over 13,000 adult farmers engage in continuous professional development through the Teagasc national farmer discussion group network.

I am advised by Teagasc that the overall average net cost to the state of education provision per college based student FTE (inclusive of further and higher education FTE’s) for the 2013/14 academic year was €6,479.  The average net cost per student FTE for the three private colleges was €5,067 for the same period. Teagasc further advise that the costs are not fully comparable in that the Teagasc owned colleges have significant involvement in Teagasc research and knowledge transfer activities.

I understand that the cost per student FTE across the Teagasc network of colleges has shown a significant downward trend over recent years. The average cost prior to 2009 was circa €12,000.

Teagasc continues to closely monitor delivery of education programmes. A range of quantitative and qualitative indicators are in place to assess performance and impact. They recently, for example, introduced a Whole College Evaluation system to further strengthen the evaluation process. It focuses on the quality of the management and teaching and is independently carried out by the Inspectorate of the Department of Education and Skills with an external peer evaluator input.