Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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944. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to publish the Teaching Council’s checklist for Chinese language teachers to become registered with the Teaching Council; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15769/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Teaching Council is the body with statutory responsibility for establishing and maintaining standards in the teaching profession in this State.  It is also the designated competent authority for the recognition and assessment of qualifications and registration of teachers at Primary and Post Primary level. 

In November 2021, the Teaching Council published the revised post primary curricular subject requirements for persons applying for registration on or after 1^stJanuary 2023.

Following a process of consultation with stakeholders, the revised requirements were approved by the Teaching Council and my Department  in the context of a range of factors, including ongoing developments in the continuum of teacher education, teacher supply issues and curricular developments.

I wish to advise that the Council is currently developing requirements for the four new curricular languages of Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese and Lithuanian, in line with the revised curricular subject requirements.

The Teaching Council will convene an information briefing in the coming weeks for relevant key stakeholders in respect of these four curricular subjects.  The requirements for these new curricular languages will then go to Teaching Council for consideration and subsequently to me as Minister for Education for approval.