The Government is committed to improving the quality of education in Ireland. In relation to teaching, this agenda is being driven on a wide number of fronts, including through the work of the Teaching Council, the initial teacher education (ITE) providers, the national induction programme for newly qualified teachers and the provision of a range of continuing professional development services.
I support the changes to content and duration being made to initial teacher education programmes for post-primary teaching. These are in line with the aims of the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy and aim to ensure that newly qualified teachers are better equipped for the needs of the modern day classroom. While the Teaching Council has set out guidelines and criteria for these programmes, provision in terms of structure and content will vary between providers as individual colleges have responsibility for implementing the changes in their own programmes. Generally, the setting of fees for postgraduate programmes of study, including post-primary teacher education programmes, is a matter for the institutes concerned.
