Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 July 2021
28. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Education the reason that quotas on primary school teacher training are applied to public institutes of higher education but not private colleges; the steps she is taking to rectify the situation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35407/21]
View answerAs Minister for Education, I approve the numbers of students which the four State-funded Higher Education Institute (HEI) providers can take in to both the Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) and Professional Master of Education (PME) programmes of primary Initial Teacher Education. The approved intake for each, over the last number of years, has been as follows:
1,000 places per annum for the B. Ed.
200 places per annum for the PME.
In addition, a privately owned institution offers a blended primary post-graduate ITE programme leading to a level 9 award of a Professional Master of Education.
My Department endeavours to manage the supply of trained primary teachers in an effort to achieve equilibrium between the supply of and the demand for trained teachers. In 2019, my Department published a technical report, Teacher Demand and Supply in Ireland 2020-2036. The report, which was updated in May 2021, now projects teacher demand and supply to 2038. The potential impact of policy levers is not examined in the report. The report was published as a working document and was the subject of intensive consultation with stakeholders after its publication. Ultimately, the intention is to establish a robust data based model for the effective projection of future teacher demand and supply across the school system.
In approving the number of places at primary in State-funded HEIs as outlined above, I will continue to have due regard to Teacher Supply data.
