James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

84. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if one-in-five 14 year olds are being taught mathematics by a teacher who is not qualified in the subject; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29348/18]

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

The Deputy will note that the performance of students in Ireland in mathematics is relatively high by international standards. The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study found that only six out of 39 countries obtained significantly higher mean scores than Ireland in mathematics.

The STEM Policy Statement and Implementation Plan, which I launched in November 2017, aims to make Ireland the best in Europe in STEM by 2026. Within our school system, new initiatives and curriculum developments will support greater participation and improved performance in STEM. Curricular reform at junior and senior cycle will provide enhanced opportunities for teaching and learning in those key subjects.

This will build on the good progress that has already been made. A report in 2010 by the University of Limerick showed that in a study of 51 schools, 48% of teachers in the study did not have a major teaching qualification in mathematics. With funding from the Department, over 1000 out-of-field maths teachers will have gained a post-graduate qualification through the a programme led by EPI-STEM, the National centre for STEM Education at University of Limerick, by 2020.

Significant progress has been made on this issue since 2010.  However I recognise that there are still challenges and the achievement of our STEM goals will rely on the availability of suitably qualified teachers to meet our schools' needs. This is one of a range of issues being considered by the Teacher Supply Steering Group, that I recently established. Already, as I announced earlier this year, following consultation with the Irish Universities Association, extra places on initial teacher education programmes have been provided by the universities in targeted subjects, including in STEM, from September 2018.

The Steering Group last met on 29 June and I hope to be in a position to announce further measures in teacher supply over coming months.