There are 1,000 places available on the Bachelor of Education programme scheduled to commence in September 2018. The places are split between the four Higher Education Institutes who provide the course:
- Marino Institute of Education
- Mary Immaculate College
- DCU Institute of Education
- Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education, Maynooth University
Applications for the Bachelor of Education programmes are made through the Central Applications Office (CAO). Upon receipt of an application, the CAO provides the student with a randomly generated number, this number only becomes relevant in the event of a tie of points.
The Higher Education Institutions advise the CAO of the number of places available on a particular course. The places are allocated to the students with the highest points. A situation may arise where there are a number of applicants with the same points competing for a few remaining places. The CAO allocates the remaining places to applicants based on their randomly generated number which was provided upon application. The procedure is that the applicants with the highest random numbers are offered the remaining places available and the other applicants are placed at the top of the waiting list.
Details of the random selection system are available on the website of the Central Applications Office.
I have established a Teacher Supply Steering Group which will develop a strategy on teacher supply for coming years to help ensure that there is a sufficient number of teachers available to meet the needs of primary and post primary schools. The Group will consider the issues that impact on teacher supply, including: policies and arrangements for schools and teachers that impact on teacher mobility/supply; promotion of the teaching profession; initial teacher education policy, provision, funding and support; and data/research requirements. The Group will also be looking at the numbers of students entering initial teacher education programmes.
