Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 27 January 2021
469. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Education the amount spent on continuing professional development for primary and post-primary teachers and school leaders in each of the years 2018 to 2020; and the budget allocation for same in 2021. [4177/21]
View answerThe Department of Education and Skills promotes the quality of teaching and learning through the provision of continuing professional development (CPD) and supports for teachers and principals. The majority of this support is provided by the national teacher education support services and by local education centres. The national teacher education support services are the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST), Junior Cycle for Teachers (JCT), National Induction Programme for Teachers (NIPT) and the Centre for School Leadership (CSL)
Funding provided to the main teacher education support services and education centres for continuous professional development for teachers and Principals since 2018 is as follows:
2018 €30.898m
2019 €29.052m
2020 €22.454m
The budget allocation for 2021 is €27.104m
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the delivery of CPD moved online during 2020. This did not effect the level of CPD provided and teachers and school leaders continued to access regular CPD events and a significant range of new CPD supports provided to assist schools with the move to remote teaching and learning. The level of CPD provided was similar to 2019.
However, the move to online provision of CPD did result in reduced expenditure in 2020 as some of the costs associated with face-to-face CPD provision did not arise. The amount of expenditure on part time associates to deliver face-to-face CPD and on travel and subsistence and ancillary costs reduced significantly.
