Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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231. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if her Department will make it mandatory for those training to become a primary or secondary school teacher to complete one work placement in a special school; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36879/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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This government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs to fulfil their full potential and the Programme for Government makes a number of commitments to deliver on this objective.

The Teaching Council registers teachers under the Teaching Council Act 2001-2015 and in line with the Teaching Council Registration Regulations, 2016.

A range of options are available to teachers in regard to training opportunities in special education. These are provided within initial teacher education (ITE) programmes for student teachers and teacher professional learning (TPL) programmes for established teachers. The programmes provided include flexible on-line opportunities right through to funding for post-graduate programmes for special education teachers.

In addition, the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) offer full school support to all staff and provide support for teachers with training needs in special education, through the NCSE support service which manages, co-ordinates and develops a range of supports in response to identified teacher training need. The NCSE has also secured the services of Middletown Centre for Autism to deliver support to school staff in special classes for children with autism.

A host of skills and teaching approaches are required every day by teachers in their classrooms. The NCSE support service is vital in this regard to ensuring teachers have the training needed to support all students to ensure no matter where a child is enrolled, they are supported and provided the opportunity to reach their full potential. It is open to any school who feels it has a training need to contact the NCSE and arrange training.

My colleague, Minister McEntee, recently wrote to the Teaching Council to begin work on making it mandatory for all student teachers to undertake one mandatory school placement in a special education setting. This is a key development and should help to ensure newly qualified teachers have the necessary skills and experience to support children with additional needs.

My department and the NCSE are committed to looking at further options to enhance training and supports for teachers and SNAs over the coming period and through the next budgetary cycle.