Written Answers. - Special Educational Needs.
Seán Barrett
Question:
16
Mr. Barrett
asked the
Minister for Education and Science
if he will alter the rules and regulations governing the entrance requirement for deaf students who have completed the leaving certificate at a school for the deaf, and who wish to apply to the training colleges for primary school teachers to qualify as teachers of the deaf, to ensure that they are not excluded.
[2713/02]
Significant and complex issues arise in relation to access to the teaching profession by people with disabilities. I am making arrangements to establish a working group to examine and review the present arrangements in consultation with relevant interests, and having regard to best international practice in this area. I am asking the group to expedite its work and report to me at an early date.
At present, the courses run in the State that allow for appointment to a permanent post in a primary school are the three year bachelor of education degree and the full-time 18 month graduate diploma in primary teaching. Both of these courses are run in the colleges of education, which specialise in the training of primary teachers. The bachelor of education, B.Ed., degree programme offered at the colleges of education is designed to equip teachers to teach the full range of subjects in the Irish primary school curriculum. Teachers who have obtained a B.Ed. degree from these colleges are permitted to teach in all national schools where they are required to complete a successful probationary period leading to full recognition as a primary teacher. During the B.Ed. programme students must develop competencies in the full range of subjects to be taught in national schools, including Irish, and the award of the B.Ed. degree signifies that the teacher involved is competent to teach all subjects on the curriculum. Consequently, the study of Irish is a core component in the B.Ed. programme, and students entering colleges of education are required to have a minimum competence in this subject in their leaving certificate examination. At present there is no undergraduate course in the State specifically designed to train candidates, either hearing or deaf, to teach deaf children.
My Department will grant restricted recognition to the following categories of teachers: teachers who trained outside the State, including teachers who trained outside the EU, with a recognised primary teacher qualification for teaching the aspects of the primary school curriculum to pupils aged four to 12 years; teachers with the Montessori qualification which is awarded on completion of the three year full-time course in the Association Montessori Internationale College, Mount St. Mary's, Milltown, Dublin 14; and teachers with the national diploma or degree in humanities in Montessori education from St. Nicholas Montessori College, Dun Laoghaire, which is accredited by HETAC.
I have had inquiries made in relation to entry requirements to the two Montessori colleges and I understand that Irish is not an essential subject for entry to the Association Montessori Internationale College in Milltown. Teachers with restricted recognition are eligible to teach only in certain categories of special schools, such as special schools for hearing impaired children, and in special classes in mainstream schools, that is, where Irish is not a curricular requirement.
