Thomas Byrne
Question:171. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills if mechanisms are in place to encourage minorities to consider a career in education; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11986/20]
View answerTuesday, 23 June 2020
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The Programme for Access to Higher Education (PATH) fund was established to support innovative measures to deliver goals, objectives and targets in the National Plan for Equity of Access to Higher Education 2015-2021 (NAP). Strand 1 supports the objective to increase access to initial teacher education for students from the target groups identified in NAP including students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, members of the Irish Traveller Community, students entering on the basis of a further education award, students with a disability and mature students. NAP sub-groups include lone parents and ethnic minorities. Funding of €2.7m over three years was initially announced in 2016 . The Fund supports new initiatives to support entry into initial teaching for NAP target groups. This Fund was allocated on a competitive basis to the Centres for Teaching Excellence.
Following a report by the Higher Education Authority on the assessment of the Early Stage Implementation, an announcement was made in April 2020, that PATH 1 funding will continue for a further three years into 2022/2023 academic year bringing the total funding for this initiative to €5.4m over a six year period.
In addition to PATH 1 the Migrant Teacher Project (MTP), based in Marino Institute of Education, was established in 2017 to support the participation of immigrant internationally educated teachers in the Irish primary and post-primary education sectors. The MTP is co-funded by my Department and the Department of Justice and Equality through the Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration's National Funding Programme 2022.
The project provides information, advice and training to teachers who have qualified outside of Ireland, to help them to continue their profession in Irish primary and post-primary schools. It aims to work with immigrant teachers to support them through the process of registration with the Teaching Council and seeking employment.
The MTP’s bridging programme ran for the first time from January until May 2019 with approx. forty primary and post-primary teachers from 18 different countries participating free of charge. The second cohort of 40 participants are expected to graduate in July of this year. Over 900 teachers from 70 countries have registered their interest with the project.
As part of my Department’s ongoing promotion of the teaching profession to support teacher supply, consideration is being given as to how to promote teaching as a career amongst those who are underrepresented in the sector, including the target groups identified under PATH 1 as well as migrant communities.