Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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246. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the steps that are being taken to deal with the shortage of teachers of home economics in Dublin; if she will give consideration to allowing those currently working in home economics teaching roles who do not have the full teaching qualifications but have other level eight degrees such as certain chefs, the opportunity to undertake on the job training or part-time college courses in order that they can become fully-qualified while continuing their teaching work; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2523/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The recruitment of teachers is a priority area of action for the Department given the importance of ensuring that every child's experience in school is positive and that they have available to them qualified, engaged and supportive teachers to support them in their learning.

My Department is undertaking a comprehensive programme to support the supply of teachers. Officials engage closely with school management bodies and other education stakeholders to inform this work.

To meet longer-term teacher demand, higher education institutions have developed new 4 year initial teacher education programmes in a number of post-primary priority subject areas, including Irish, mathematics, computer science, modern foreign languages and home economics.

In addition, my Department fully funds post primary teachers to participate in upskilling programmes in mathematics, physics and Spanish. The first cohort of participants, approximately 170 teachers, completed these programmes in 2022 and more than 300 teachers are due to graduate in 2023. It is also intended to commence an upskilling programme in Irish in 2023/24 and consideration will be given to expanding the programmes to other priority subject areas.

My Department has also introduced a scheme to allow post-primary schools to share teachers, the aim of which is to recruit teachers in high-demand subjects, such as home economics, and give teachers a full-time teaching contract. Schools are strongly urged to explore this option as a means of supporting teacher recruitment.

In addition, at post-primary level for the current school year, teachers may also teach additional hours in their subject area over the usual 22-hour limit, up to a maximum of 20 additional hours per term.

These measures are underpinned by the Teaching Transformscampaign which promotes the teaching profession and encourages students to follow a career in teaching. The campaign is supported by the dedicated webpage on gov.ie.

It is acknowledged that work remains to be done to address teacher supply challenges. The Department continues to work closely and intensively with stakeholders to develop and implement creative solutions to address the teacher supply challenges for schools.

Under the Teaching Council Acts 2001-2015 the Teaching Council is the body with the statutory authority and responsibility for the regulation of the teaching profession in Ireland, including the registration of teachers in the State.

A person who applies to be entered on the register on the basis of qualifications as a post-primary teacher must satisfy the Council that he or she has obtained one of the following:

- an undergraduate degree in teacher education which combines the study of one or more of the curricular subject disciplines, with other initial teacher education components including school placement, foundation studies and professional studies and is accredited by the Council for the purposes of post-primary teaching and is at level 8 or higher on the NFQ,

-a post-graduate qualification in teacher education which includes school placement, foundation studies and professional studies and is accredited by the Council for the purposes of post-primary teaching and is at level 8 or higher on the NFQ, or

- a qualification or qualifications obtained which, in the opinion of the Teaching Council is or are of an equivalent standard to the standards required set forth above, having conducted an assessment of that qualification in accordance with the General System.

The persons referred to by the Deputy must obtain one of these qualifications and meet the requirements for at least one curricular subject with reference to the Teaching Council’s “Revised Post-primary Curricular Subject Requirements”.

There are no plans to provide on the job training or part-time college courses in order that these persons can become fully qualified as teachers of home economics.