Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 November 2023
189. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Education to outline her plans to address the growing number of teacher shortages; what she intends to do in the short- and medium-term to address this situation in general, and particularly in areas of disadvantage, special schools and Gaelscoileanna. [49369/23]
View answerEnsuring that every child's experience in school is positive and that they have qualified, engaged teachers available to support them in their learning is a priority area of action for the Government.
Budget 2024 contains a range of measures that demonstrate my commitment to continued investment in our education system. In addition to numerous actions I have taken in recent years to address teacher supply, a number of specific, targeted measures will be introduced with the new funding provided.
These include a professional masters of education (PME) incentive scheme, funding for additional teacher upskilling programmes, and increasing the number of posts of responsibility.
• A professional masters of education (PME) incentive scheme will be introduced for newly qualified teachers graduating in 2024. Those newly qualified teachers who graduate with a PME will, subject to some conditions, be eligible for an incentive payment of up to €2,000. This incentive payment will be paid to eligible primary and post-primary teachers in 2025. It will recognise the costs that PME students incur when completing their initial teacher education, assist them with these costs and encourage suitable candidates to consider a career in teaching.
• Additionally, there will be an expansion in the number of upskilling programmes available. These programmes, which are free to teachers, increase the number of teachers who are qualified to teach in-demand subjects and reduce the level of out-of-field teaching. These new upskilling programmes in Irish, French, politics & society, and computer science will be in addition to existing upskilling programmes in maths, physics and Spanish.
• Also, an additional 1,000 posts of responsibility will be provided in the school system for the 2024/25 school year. This is recognises that school leaders play a key role in improving educational outcomes by creating a positive school climate and environment as well as motivating and empowering educators and learners within their school communities.
These new measures are in addition to a range of targeted measures that I have introduced in recent times, including:
• At primary level, I approved 610 additional places on initial teacher education programmes for this and the next academic year (2023/24 and 2024/25).
• I recently met with the primary teacher initial education providers on continuing existing flexibilities that enable student teachers to support schools, either while on placement, or in a substitute capacity. In 2023, more than 2,700 student teachers registered with the Teaching Council and provided valuable support to schools as substitute teachers.
• Restrictions on job-sharing teachers from working as substitutes have been reduced. These teachers may be employed to work as substitutes during the period they are rostered off duty.
• Limits on substitute work applying to teachers on career breaks have also been suspended.
• Post-primary teachers can provide up to 35 additional hours of substitute cover per term in the subject they are qualified to teach.
The teacher allocation ratio in primary schools is now at the lowest ever seen at primary level. The average student-per-teacher ratio in primary schools reduced by 10% between 2017 and 2023.
While schools in certain locations are experiencing challenges in both recruiting teachers and obtaining substitute teachers, the vast majority of sanctioned teacher positions are filled. The rate of resignation and retirement is very low by any standard, and is consistent with previous years.
Supplementing the universal supports available to all schools, the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) Programme is a key policy initiative of my Department to address concentrated educational disadvantage at school level in a targeted and equitable way across the primary and post-primary sectors.
In March last year, I announced the single largest expansion of the DEIS programme. This benefited 361 schools. The programme now includes in the region of 1,200 schools and supports approximately 240,000 students. 1 in 4 students and 30% of schools are now supported in the programme.
Schools that were identified for inclusion in the programme were those with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage as identified through the refined DEIS identification model, which is an objective, statistics-based model. Schools were not required to apply for inclusion in the DEIS programme and the model was applied fairly and equally to all schools.
The extension of the DEIS programme to new schools is just one component of work in my vision for an inclusive education system which supports all learners to achieve their potential. While the DEIS programme supports those schools with the highest levels of concentrated educational disadvantage, I also recognise that there are students at risk of educational disadvantage in all schools. Since June 2020, and over the past four budgets, I have secured funding to provide measures to support children in this regard.
My Department recognises the need to target resources to those schools who need them most, the next phase of work will explore the allocation of resources to all schools to tackle educational disadvantage.
In the Special Education sector,
• The Department recognises the importance of providing well-timed and appropriate support to pupils with identified learning needs.
• The Special Education Teaching (SET) allocation for mainstream schools provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs to each school, based on the educational needs profile of each school.
• Schools are frontloaded with ring-fenced SET resources for the purpose of supporting pupils with an identified and recorded special education learning need. This allocation allows schools to provide additional teaching support for pupils who require such support in their schools based on each pupil’s individual learning needs.
• It is a matter for schools to deploy SET resources effectively to meet the needs identified in the Student Support Plans, which should be based on the continuum of support framework. Once the Department allocates SET hours to a school it is the responsibility of the school and the board management to utilise the allocation to meet the needs of those students with special educational needs. Special education teaching hours should only be used for their intended purpose to support pupils with an identified and recorded special education learning need.
Budget 2024 also contains a number of measures designed to help support every pupil and student to thrive at school and realise the full extent of their potential including:
• A 5% increase for the special education budget this year to allow the recruitment of an additional 744 SET posts and 1,216 SNA posts bringing the total number of such posts to more than 41,500.
• This will allow for the opening over 400 new special classes in mainstream schools and 300 additional special school places.
• A total provision for approximately 2,700 new placements for children with special educational needs in special classes across primary, post-primary and special school settings.
While accepting the significant challenges facing special schools, it may be possible for some special schools to consider how they organise class groupings and utilise existing teaching and SNA resources to best support learner engagement in those classes, in the short term, while they look to recruit additional teaching staff.
To assist with this work, the Department and the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) would encourage special schools to engage with the NCSE in relation to the potential to recruit additional SNA support in the short term to ensure that classes can be opened and remain open for students. The NCSE at local level will be available to assist special schools with this process.
A range of teacher education actions have been funded under the Policy on Gaeltacht Education to increase the supply of teachers available to teach effectively through the medium of Irish.
- An Irish-medium Bachelor of Education (B. Ed). Initial Teacher Education programme for primary teachers is delivered by Marino Institute of Education. Funding is provided by my Department for 30 new places annually. 60 places were made available on the B.Ed. this year as part of a comprehensive plan to support teacher supply. The first cohort of students will graduate from the Irish-medium B.Ed. in November 2023.
- A Masters of Education in Irish-medium and Gaeltacht Education was recently commenced in Trinity College Dublin. Funding is also provided by my Department for 30 places on this course annually.
- Two seconded teachers and COGG bursaries have been provided to support the Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas (Irish-medium PME) in the University of Galway since 2017.
Work on the development of a new policy for Irish-medium education outside of the Gaeltacht is in progress in my Department.
An extensive public consultation process has been conducted to gather the views of education stakeholders, including young people, parents, education professionals, and Irish-language organisations. The issues raised in that consultation will be considered as part of the work on the development of the Policy on Irish-medium Education outside of the Gaeltacht.
Teaching remains an attractive career choice.
• CAO first preference choices for post-primary teaching increased this year by 14%, in addition to a 9% increase in 2022.
• Starting pay for teachers is over €41,000 since October under the extension to Building Momentum.
• Over 3,700 newly qualified teachers have registered with the Teaching Council in 2023, with over 120,000 now on the Teaching Council register, a record number.
My Department continues to engage closely with school management bodies, teacher unions and other education stakeholders to develop further, innovative measures to address teacher supply issues.
