Vol. 503 No. 4
196 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Education and Science the reason a person (details supplied) in Dublin 6W, who wrote to him on 14 February 1999 and faxed a copy of a letter to his Department approximately three weeks ago regarding the difficulties experienced by art teachers who attempted to qualify through the technical system of art teachers' training run by his Department until 1988, has not received an acknowledgment. [10556/99]
The delay relates to certain difficulties encountered by the officers of my Department in formulating a comprehensive answer to the query raised in the letter. One of these is the fact that there are a number of categories of unqualified teacher who attempted to qualify through the TS, technical system, some have not passed the TS examinations, others have passed the TS but have not passed all three elements of the ATC, art teaching certificate.
To address this longstanding problem, it will be necessary to ascertain the number of teachers currently belonging to these two categories, the current status of their employment: TWT, EPT or part-time, and the exact qualifications of the teachers in question.
I know my Department is in the process of quantifying the above data. When this picture is clear, it will be possible to work on a solution to issues in question.
