Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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221. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a pathway exists for graduates of a course (details supplied) to receive a Teaching Council number; whether route 4 continues to exist for level 8 graduates; and if there is an alternative to completing a master’s degree for qualification. [36763/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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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 Act 2001-2015 - www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2001/act/8/enacted/en/html - and in line with the Teaching Council Registration Regulations, 2016, www.teachingcouncil.ie/assets/uploads/2023/08/revised-teaching-council-registration-regulations-2016.pdf. There are five routes of registration, the minimum registration requirements for each route are set out in the Schedule of the Regulations.

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.

It is the Council’s responsibility to ensure that all teachers entering the profession in Ireland have met the required standards. These standards have been established following extensive consultation with relevant stakeholders, research, and in accordance with Department of Education policies and priorities and developed over a number of years.

The St. Nicholas Montessori College degree in Montessori Education had long-standing recognition with the Department of Education (DE) and was subsequently amalgamated into the Council’s Registration Regulations under Route 4. Since the making of the 2016 Regulations and the development of registration regulations, standards for initial teacher education and accreditation of programmes of initial teacher education, the phasing out of recognition for the Montessori qualification under Route 4 has been implemented.

Route 4 formerly provided for applicants who had obtained the level 8 Bachelor of Education in Montessori Education from St Nicholas Montessori College, which was commenced on or before 1 October 2018 and completed on or before 31 December 2023, to apply for registration up until 31 December 2023. This provision which was subject to extensive consultation with all relevant stakeholders is now closed.

It had been known that this was being phased out with a clear timeframe for same, which outlines that the qualification was only acceptable for registration under Route 4 Other where the application was made on or before 31 December 2023.

All initial teacher education programmes in Ireland that lead to registration must have professional accreditation from the Teaching Council. The course being referred to in this query, was not a course of primary initial teacher education. At the time, St Nicholas’s did not seek to offer any other course of primary initial education.

Applications under Route 4 – Other (Qualified outside the Republic of Ireland) will continue be assessed by the Teaching Council to ensure that they meet the requirements for Special Educational Needs teaching in Ireland.

The Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act 2004 - www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2004/act/30/enacted/en/html - provides that people with special educational needs are educated in an inclusive environment, as far as possible and have the same right to access and benefit from education as children who don’t have these needs.

The Teaching Council has published Céim: Standards for Initial Teacher Education - www.teachingcouncil.ie/assets/uploads/2023/08/ceim-standards-for-initial-teacher-education.pdf - which set out the requirements which all programmes of qualification for teaching in Ireland must meet in order to gain accreditation from the Teaching Council. It is also a benchmark for anybody seeking to register as a teacher in Ireland.

Céim includes core elements that ITE programmes must contain, including Inclusive Education: which "includes the fostering of appropriate learning environments, including digital ones, which support the development of student teachers’ ability to provide for the learning needs of all pupils by utilising, for example, a universal design for learning framework." This is intended to provide the foundational competencies teachers will need in order to teach in SEN settings.

There are a number of Graduate and Post-graduate Diplomas in the field of Special Education which are approved by the Department of Education and can be used to add this sector to a teacher’s registration where the teacher also holds an accredited teacher education qualification.

The Teaching Council works within Department policy and central to this policy is that all teachers teaching children with Special Educational Needs should be qualified Primary or Post-Primary teachers in the first instance and may then apply for one of the DE recognised qualifications in Special Educational Needs as outlined in Circular 0044/2019: assets.gov.ie/static/documents/dbbed0ae-00442019-.pdf