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Teaching Qualifications.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 26 January 2005

Wednesday, 26 January 2005

Questions (741, 742)

Finian McGrath

Question:

805 Mr. F. McGrath asked the Minister for Education and Science the position regarding the on-line teacher training course run by a college (details supplied) and other developments in this area. [34122/04]

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Joe Higgins

Question:

1129 Mr. J. Higgins asked the Minister for Education and Science if consideration will be given to suspending the on-line H.Dip course for primary teachers run by a company (details supplied) in order that a comprehensive debate regarding teacher training involving student teachers, teacher’s unions and the general public can take place. [1483/05]

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Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 805 and 1129 together.

The college referred to by the Deputies is a privately-owned institution providing a privately-run course which has been accredited by the Higher Education and Training Awards Council. In order for the course to secure HETAC accreditation, the college complied with HETAC's quality assurance and validation requirements. The graduate diploma conferred at the end of this course is recognised by my Department for the purposes of primary teaching.

I would like to assure the Deputy that my Department's inspectorate monitors 10% of the final teaching practice students from the college in question, as is the case for the students of the five colleges of education at undergraduate and post-graduate levels. This process aims to assess the quality of the teaching practice dimension of pre-service education in individual colleges and throughout the system. It also strives to provide information on teaching practice to the Department and the individual colleges.

In the case of the college which is the subject of the Deputies' questions, this evaluation process has just been completed by the inspectorate for the first cohort of the college's students who are due to graduate in June 2005.

Analysis and assessment of this work in currently under way and the outcome of this work will be provided to the college covered by the Deputies' questions as well as the five colleges of education in a series of meetings with the Department's inspectorate. The provision of feedback to the colleges is a normal practice and it is a valuable means of improving the quality of teaching provided to students.

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