Written answers

Thursday, 26 January 2017

Department of Education and Skills

Teaching Council of Ireland

Photo of Carol NolanCarol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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84. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of resource teachers who are currently on restricted probation as a result of the directive by the INTO; his plans to address this issue; the number of resource teachers that are currently teaching in schools without full probation; the steps taken by his Department to date to resolve the issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3718/17]

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Teaching Council is the statutory body with responsibility for professional standards at all stages of the teaching career. It has established standards for post-qualification professional practice, as set out in Droichead, the new model of induction and probation for newly qualified primary and post-primary teachers.  The Droichead programme was the subject of a three-year pilot before it was approved by the Council in March 2016. The programme is being introduced on a phased basis since last September.

During the growth and development phase of Droichead, teachers employed in a special education or restricted setting must avail of the Droichead programme to achieve full registration with the Council.  While a new policy on teacher probation was adopted by the Teaching Council last December, this does not change the requirement for teachers in a special education setting to avail of Droichead.

The INTO issued a directive to its members not to cooperate with or participate in Droichead from 1 July 2016. This directive has prevented newly qualified teachers employed in special education settings from participating in Droichead since September and thereby closed off the registration pathway. I hope the INTO will review its approach. 

My Department is considering the impact of the changes to the Droichead policy.

The Teaching Council has confirmed that there are 4,868 teachers who currently have the condition of probation/Droichead attached to their teacher registration. This is the number of individuals registered with the Teaching Council and should not be taken as an indicator of employment status in schools (e.g. teaching in mainstream, teaching in SEN settings (resource and/or learning support), teaching outside the state and those not currently teaching).

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