Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

93. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to create equal supplementary panel rights for fully qualified regulation three teachers with Teaching Council numbers (details supplied). [18851/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The supplementary panel application process for eligible fixed-term (temporary/substitute) and part-time teachers for the 2016/17 school year is set out in Circular 0058/2015 which is available on my Department's website.

Since 2006, the Teaching Council is the body with statutory responsibility and authority for regulation of the teaching profession, including the registration of teachers under the Teaching Council Acts 2001-2015.

Under the Teaching Council [Registration] Regulations 2009, Regulation 3 (Montessori and other categories), graduates with certain Montessori qualifications (Level 8 on the National Framework of Qualifications) are allowed to be registered as teachers to teach in certain restricted settings in recognized schools. Lengthening and reconfiguring the programmes of initial teacher education is a key component of the National Strategy to Improve Literacy and Numeracy among Children and Young People 2011-2020. These changes were incorporated into the Teaching Council's Policy Paper on the Continuum of Teacher Education, which set the criteria for providers of initial teacher education.

The position is that, since the end of the 2012/13 school year, the Supplementary Special National Panel is being phased out and no new applications are being accepted. This decision by my Department reflects the wider availability of primary teachers who are qualified to work in all settings, which was not the case when this panel was originally set up.

Since 2012, the Teaching Council has responsibility for determining policy, procedures and criteria for the induction and probation of newly qualified teachers. Droichead which is the enhanced model of induction for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) developed by the Council is being phased in at present and will be the only recognised route of induction for all new teachers from September 2018. In the meantime, NQTs in mainstream settings may complete probation through external evaluation conducted by my Department's inspectors. However, completion of the induction/probation process in special education settings can only be achieved through the Droichead process.

Arrangements for the Supplementary Panel will be reviewed with the relevant education stakeholders later this year to determine what adjustment, if any, is required for the 2017/18 school year.