The Deputy will be aware that it is the policy of my Department that only teachers registered with the Teaching Council should be employed by recognised schools. Circulars 31/2011, 25/2013 and 52/2013 issued by my Department to the Managerial Authorities of schools state that each employer shall ensure that each person proposed for appointment to a teaching post, for which salary grant is being sought, must be registered with the Teaching Council and have qualifications appropriate to the sector and suitable to the post for which he/she is to be employed.
The information available to my Department relates to teachers appointed for the first time since February 2012 as follows:
- Teachers employed in Primary Schools 2,940.
- Teachers employed in Voluntary Secondary, Community and Comprehensive Schools 1,230.
As Education and Training Boards (ETBs) operate their own payrolls, information on teachers first appointed in the ETB sector since February 2012 is not readily available in my Department.