Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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191. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the professional master’s in education can be completed in one year following an undergraduate degree; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13229/20]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Initial teacher education (ITE) for primary and post-primary teachers is facilitated through a range of concurrent (undergraduate) and consecutive (postgraduate) programmes.

The Teaching Council is the statutory body charged with determining standards for the teaching profession and for accrediting programmes of ITE. All ITE programmes that lead to registration with the Council must have professional accreditation from the Council.

All persons wishing to teach in recognised schools must meet the professional registration standards and criteria set by the Teaching Council.

Changes to the duration and content of all initial teacher education programmes were made in response to recommendations in the National Strategy to Improve Literacy and Numeracy among Children and Young People 2011-2020 and were incorporated into the Teaching Council’s Policy Paper on the Continuum of Teacher Education and Criteria and Guidelines for Programme Providers.

Improvements which have been made to initial teacher education programmes include the reconfiguration of the content and duration of courses, with the duration of concurrent ITE programmes set at a minimum of four years while the postgraduate programmes of teacher education are set at two years, thereby facilitating an innovative reconceptualisation of programmes.

The lengthened and reconfigured programmes include substantial periods of school placement as central to student teacher development and a number of mandatory elements including literacy and numeracy, teaching, learning and assessment including school and classroom planning, differentiation, behaviour management, inclusive education (special education, multiculturalism, disadvantage, etc) and ICT in teaching and learning. 

These reforms focus on improving the quality of teaching in our schools, which is central to the educational outcomes of our children. I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department has no plans at present to modify the duration of the postgraduate entry route to teaching.