Teacher Support Services

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 May 2011

Tuesday, 24 May 2011

Questions (126)

Timmy Dooley

Question:

153 Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will consider abolishing the professional development service for teachers support service considering that it is not meeting the continuous professional development needs of teachers; if he will revert back to establishing the two main support services that were in existence the primary professional development service and the second level support service or if he will consider basing the continuous professional development service on a regional structure and have a more equal distribution of primary and post primary secondees to deliver continuous professional development in education centres; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12710/11]

Written answers

Minister of State at the Department of Education and Skills (Deputy Ciarán Cannon)

I have no plans to abolish the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST).

The PDST is a team of seconded teachers, which offers professional development support to primary and post-primary teachers on a wide range of topics. The PDST was established in September 2010, following a reconfiguration of the support services in existence prior to that date. Given the budgetary and personnel restrictions now prevailing, my Department has a much reduced level of seconded teachers available to provide continuing professional development for teachers in comparison with previous years. For this reason, the number of personnel in the PDST is significantly reduced from the total numbers available to the Primary Professional Development Service and the Second Level Support Service, and the other support services which were involved in the reconfiguration. The PDST team was established on a regional basis following a competitive process where serving secondees in the 2009/2010 school year were invited to apply for a position in the new service. The successful candidates were chosen on merit, and would have displayed an ability to operate on a generic and cross-sectoral level.

2011 is the first full year of the operation of the PDST, and the service will be centrally involved in implementing measures to improve literacy and numeracy from the 2011/2012 school year.