The information requested by the Deputy is not available to the officials of my Department. Teachers in primary schools are appointed and employed by the managerial authority of the school. In the event that the managerial authority of a primary school is unable to obtain the services of a fully qualified teacher at a particular time, it may appoint a person who is not fully trained in a temporary capacity. The managerial authority must continue to make every effort to obtain the services of a fully qualified person, including re-advertising a post.
I am pleased to inform the Deputy that a range of measures have been introduced by the Government to boost substantially the supply of trained primary teachers and alleviate the difficulty.
The total intake to the colleges of education for primary teaching in the 1999-2000 academic year was 1,283. This compares to an intake of 500 in 1996-97.
There are approximately 1,000 students again enrolled in the first year of the undergraduate training course in the 2000-01 academic year. A further post-graduate course will commence early in 2001 with a proposed intake of 280 students, bringing the total enrolment to 1,280.
It is projected that the intake to the undergraduate training course for primary teachers will continue at the current level of 1,000 for the 2001-02 academic year.
Between the 2000 and 2001 academic years it is projected that approximately 1,900 qualified primary teachers will graduate from the colleges of education. This represents a huge increase in the number of trained graduates compared to 1995 when 291 graduated.
A number of other initiatives to reduce the number of untrained personnel have also been introduced. B.Ed. graduates of St. Mary's College, Belfast, who have studied Irish to honours level as an academic subject as part of their teaching qualification, are now recognised as fully qualified.
Since September 1998, all primary degree holders who hold the higher diploma in education are paid as fully trained substitute teachers. In the current academic year, persons employed in a temporary capacity holding a degree and the higher diploma in education are paid on the trained basic scale for teachers.