Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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514. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a standardised complaints system for schools and a teaching fitness to practice system as proposed is planned. [7902/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Section 28 of the Education Act 1998 provides for grievance and appeal procedures in schools. It expresses a desirability of determining appeals and resolving grievances in the school concerned.

Section 29 of the Act sets out a limited set of circumstances a parent can appeal administrative decisions of a school. These are confined to expulsions, suspensions or refusal to enroll. The Government has approved the drafting of the Admissions to School Bill 2014 in which the extent to which refusal to enroll will or will not be subject to a Section 29 appeal will be addressed.

I am not satisfied with the current provisions of Section 28. I plan to revise it in order to provide in law for a Parent and Student Charter. Changing how schools engage with, listen and respond to parent concerns will be an important part of a Charter. Providing parents with the rationale for any decision is important. If schools help parents to understand the basis for a decision parents are more likely to accept the fairness of decisions.

The Teaching Council is the body with statutory authority, under the Teaching Council Act 2001, for the professional regulation of teachers. I intend to amend the Teaching Council Act to strengthen the legislative architecture for the Council's fitness to teach function and Garda vetting.

Part 5 of the Teaching Council Act 2001 makes provision for the Council to conduct inquiries into a teacher's Fitness to Teach. I intend to commence Part 5 later this year. Government approval was given on 10th December for drafting The Teaching Council (Amendment) Bill to provide for a wider range of sanctions such as advice, admonishment and censure, which may be applied by the Council following an inquiry.

Procedures were introduced in 2009 under the Education Act (Section 24) for schools and Education and Training Boards (then VECs), as employers, to address teacher competence issues. Generally speaking it will be necessary for these procedures to be exhausted before investigation by the Teaching Council under Part 5.

Once the relevant sections are commenced, the Council will investigate complaints against teachers through a number of phases, up to and including holding a hearing. The staged process ensures that the investigation is robust and that the rights of all parties, including teachers, to a fair hearing and due process is respected.

This process will also allow for measures to be put in place to support those teachers who need help to bring their professional practice up to the high standards expected as well as for sanctions such as suspension or deregistration should the situation require it.

However, it is important to note that the Council's fitness to teach processes will not replace the procedures that are already in place in schools to deal with issues of professional conduct and competence. Underperformance or misconduct should be dealt with first at school level and these procedures exhausted before any inquiry by the Teaching Council would take place. It would be expected that most cases should conclude at the level of the school.