Sorca Clarke
Question:230. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Education the number of secondary schools that do not have a home economics teacher in 2020, 2021, 2022 and to date in 2023, by county, in tabular form. [18807/23]
View answerThursday, 20 April 2023
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Written answers
The recruitment and appointment of teachers to fill teaching posts is a matter for individual school authorities, subject to procedures agreed upon under Section 24 of the Education Act 1998. The Department does not currently collate data on vacant home economics posts in post-primary schools.
With regard to the future supply of teachers of home economics, following the introduction by the Teaching Council of revised student Curricular Subject Requirements (Post-Primary) for persons applying for registration on or after 1 January 2023, students in St Angela’s College, Sligo now qualify to teach home economics (with the option of a second subject) in 4 years rather than 5, as was previously the case. This applies to the student intake in 2022 and subsequent years, and should have the effect of increasing graduate numbers when students graduate from both the 5 year and 4 year programmes.
Additionally, a number of new routes to home economics teaching are now in place. Munster Technological University (MTU) and University College Cork (UCC) offer a pathway for students to become qualified teachers in home economics and business whereby students study at MTU for 3 years and then undertake a PME in UCC for 2 years. A new BA in Education, Home Economics and Business Studies programme is also due to commence at MIC Thurles in September of this year. Graduates of this programme will, subject to Teaching Council approval, be qualified to teach home economics and business.
In addition, programmes to upskill already registered teachers to teach home economics are being offered by MTU and St Angela’s.
The Department is undertaking a comprehensive programme to support the supply of post-primary teachers, including:
• As a temporary measure, post-primary teachers can provide additional hours of substitute cover in the subject they are qualified to teach. The number of additional hours that can be taught per term has been increased from 20 to 35 for the remainder of the 2022/23 school year.
• For 2022/23, higher education institutions have introduced flexibility in the delivery of initial teacher education programmes to allow student teachers to provide more substitute cover.
• The Teaching Council introduced regulations allowing for the registration of 3rd and 4th-year undergraduate student teachers under registration Route 5 (Student Teachers). More than 2,700 student teachers have registered under route 5 to date. This initiative supports the employment of student teachers to cover substitutable vacancies.
• A waiver of abatement for retired teachers returning to teach for up to 50 days in each of the three calendar years, 2021 to 2023 inclusive has been agreed upon with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
• For 2022/23, job-sharing teachers may be employed to work in a substitute capacity during the period they are rostered off, in their own or in other schools, and the limits on substitute work applying to teachers on career break have also been suspended.
• The Department provided details of the staffing arrangements for the 2023/24 school year to schools before the end of January. This will facilitate schools to begin recruitment for the 2023/24 school year earlier than in 2022.
• Newly qualified teachers (NQTs) who qualify outside Ireland may now complete induction (Droichead) in Ireland under a new measure implemented by the Teaching Council. This measure seeks to enhance the supply of NQTs available to schools.
Measures targeted at supporting the long-term supply needs of the system have also been put in place.
• The Department has increased the number of places on post primary teacher upskilling programmes in mathematics, Spanish and physics. The programmes are delivered outside of class time and are offered at no cost to the teacher. Approximately 170 places were provided in the first intake across the three programmes with an increase in places to over 300 in 2023.
• A new programme for post-primary teachers to upskill in Irish is planned for commencement in 2023/2024. The Department is also considering additional upskilling programmes in other priority subject areas.
• The Department introduced a scheme to allow post-primary schools to share teachers, the aim of which is to recruit teachers in high-demand subjects and give teachers a full-time teaching contract. It is expected that a pilot of the scheme will be introduced in a small number of locations for the 2023/24 school year.
In addition to the above measures, the Teaching Transforms campaign continues to promote the teaching profession and encourage students to follow a career in teaching. The campaign uses digital, radio and video media, and is supported by a dedicated webpage, www.gov.ie/teachingtransforms. It should be noted that CAO first preference choices for post-primary teaching have increased this year by 11%.
The Department meets on a regular basis with school management bodies and teacher unions on this very important issue and will continue to work intensively with all stakeholders to develop and implement creative solutions to address the teacher supply challenges for schools.