Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 September 2016
133. Deputy Colm Brophy asked the Minister for Education and Skills his plans regarding the introduction of compulsory Children First training in teacher training colleges and for newly qualified teachers as part of their induction training. [27634/16]
View answerThe Teaching Council is the professional standards body for teaching. The role of the Council is to promote and regulate the teaching profession, including establishing and promoting professional standards and supporting teachers’ learning.
The Teaching Council’s criteria for initial teacher education (ITE) programmes set out, for professional accreditation purposes, learning outcomes that graduates of the programmes are expected to meet, including that they will “practise within the statutory framework pertaining to education, including child protection guidelines” and “demonstrate knowledge and understanding of children’s rights, including their right to a voice in various matters that relate to their lives”. The Council has also adopted School Placement Guidelines as an addendum to its ITE criteria. The Guidelines set out, inter alia, the Council’s expectations of student teachers on placement, including that they will be familiar with the school’s child protection policy, and other relevant policies.
ITE programmes are accredited by the Council and are the subject of regular review by independent panels established by the Council so as to ensure that standards continue to be met.
With regard to induction, the Council adopted Droichead as the enhanced induction framework for newly qualified teachers in March of this year. Droichead is, primarily, a school-based model of induction, whereby a new teacher’s learning is supported by experienced colleagues. This allows for national policies, such as Children First, to be mediated within the particular context of the school.
In addition, the National Induction Programme for Teachers (NIPT), a support service for teachers, provides a Child Protection workshop for both primary and post primary newly qualified teachers (NQTs). This workshop is available in Education Centres to all NQTs completing probation/induction and is also available on the NIPT website (www.teacherinduction.ie).
The Deputy may also wish to note that the Teaching Council this year adopted Cosán, the national framework for teachers’ learning, following the induction phase. Through this framework, the Council has sought to capture the breadth of teachers’ lifelong learning by reference to six high-level learning areas. Two of those, inclusion, and well-being, are particularly pertinent in the context of the Children First Guidelines.
