Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 30 April 2014
146. Deputy Mary Mitchell O'Connor asked the Minister for Education and Skills if the picture exchange communication system, which has been proven to be very beneficial for children with autism could be more widely used and included in the training of teachers in colleges of education; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18891/14]
View answerUnder the Teaching Council Act, the Teaching Council is the body with statutory authority and responsibility for the review and accreditation of programmes of Initial Teacher Education. In order to guide its reviews and provide a benchmark for HEIs providing programmes of initial teacher education, the Council has developed "Criteria and Guidelines for Programme Providers of Initial Teacher Education", published in August 2011. The criteria for ITE prescribe a list of mandatory areas of study and Special Education, as part of Inclusive Education, is one such mandatory area. All providers have been required by the Council to reconfigure their programmes to meet the Council's criteria, and most have now been presented to the Council for accreditation.
It is the view of the Teaching Council that ITE is about the development of critical core skills, which can then be applied to any range of issues in the classroom, possibly with the benefit of further up-skilling post-qualification. The latter point is important, because teacher education spans the entire teaching career. Given that there are currently more than 87,000 teachers on the Council's register of teachers, with only 3,000 or so graduating from initial teacher education every year, it is important that the issue of special educational needs would not be seen as one to be covered at ITE stage only. Although the Council's functions in the area of CPD have not yet been commenced, it considers this to be a very important phase in the continuum of teacher education and is currently planning for the development of a national framework on CPD. It should also be noted that the issue of SEN is covered as part of an induction workshop programme which all newly qualified teachers are required to engage in, in order to be fully registered with the Teaching Council.
I thank the Deputy for her suggestion, which will be brought to the attention of the National Council for Special Education and the Teaching Council.
