Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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473. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will consider permitting persons with an accredited teaching English as foreign language certificate to substitute as support staff in schools if Garda vetted to fill English as additional language hours and support children with little or no English, given that many English as additional language support roles are unfilled; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4745/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Schools must ensure that each person proposed for appointment to a teaching post which is funded by the Oireachtas is registered with the Teaching Council, has qualifications appropriate to the sector, and is suitable to the post for which he/she is to be employed.  All appointments must be subject to compliance with the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Acts 2012 to 2016 and with relevant Department Circulars in relation to Garda vetting.

Outside limited and exceptional circumstances permitted under Ministerial regulations, an unregistered person employed in place of a teacher in a recognised school cannot be paid from monies provided by the Oireachtas.

The Teaching Council is the professional standards body for the teaching profession, which promotes and regulates professional standards in teaching. The Teaching Council registers teachers under the Teaching Council Acts and in line with the Teaching Council Registration Regulations, 2016. The Council registers teachers under five routes of registration namely, Route 1 - Primary, Route 2 - Post-primary, Route 3 - Further Education, Route 4 - Other and Route 5 - Student Teacher. The minimum registration requirements for each route are set out in the schedule of the Regulations.

While my Department currently does not intend to allow for persons with a teaching English as foreign language certificate to act as support staff in schools, a range of initiatives are being considered to address teacher supply issues. 

My Department is undertaking a comprehensive programme to support the supply of teachers. A number of measures are being implemented to enhance the supply of teachers, including:

- a number of special temporary arrangements are being introduced, following meetings I held with initial teacher education providers, to create greater capacity for student teachers to provided substitute cover.

- the Department’s continuing professional development (CPD) services have adjusted planned CPD to reduce the need for substitution and provide additional personnel to support schools

- the additional hours that post primary teachers can teach each term have been increased from 20 to 35 for the remainder of the 2022/23 school year.

- a communications campaign has been launched to encourage retired teachers to take up short-term substitute positions and enabling them to teach for up to 50 days in each of the calendar years 2021 to 2023 without reducing their pension.

- registration with the Teaching Council of over 2,100 3rd and 4th year undergraduate student teachers, enabling them cover substitutable vacancies.

- providing allocations for the 2023/24 school year to post-primary schools on 26 January, with those for primary schools issued on 31 January.

- providing for fully funded upskilling programmes in mathematics, physics and Spanish. Beginning with 170 places in January 2021, I have agreed to increase places to over 300 in 2023, and a new Irish upskilling programme is planned for 2023/24.

- providing for the allocation of a significant number of additional posts to primary substitute teacher supply panels in areas where significant challenges in sourcing substitution continue. This brings the total to 610 posts on 151 panels covering more than 2,840 schools.

These measures are underpinned by the Teaching Transforms campaign which promotes the teaching profession and encourages students to follow a career in teaching.

Despite the positive impact of these important actions, work remains to be done to address teacher supply challenges, particularly to ensure the availability of sufficient numbers of substitute teachers.

My Department continues to work intensively with all stakeholders to develop and implement creative solutions to address the teacher supply challenges for schools.