There are 5 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) providing primary Initial Teacher Education in Ireland, four State-funded and one private provider.
Each of the State-funded providers has both concurrent (undergraduate) and consecutive (postgraduate) programmes:
- DCU Institute of Education.
- Marino Institute of Education.
- Maynooth University (Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education)
- Mary Immaculate College.
The number of students admitted to primary concurrent and consecutive programmes in State-funded HEIs is determined by my Department, having regard to teacher supply and demand issues, and available resources. The intake has remained broadly stable, over the past number of years.
Hibernia College is a privately owned institution which provides a primary consecutive (postgraduate) ITE programme only. My Department has no involvement in setting the numbers for Hibernia.
The number of graduates per year, across the various institutions, is set out in this table. The Deputy will see that in total, the number of graduates from State-funded providers continues to exceed the number of graduates from the private provider.
Number of Graduates from Primary Initial Teacher Education per year.
Table
*Final Figures for 2020 not yet confirmed.
The Deputy will be aware that considerable work has been taking place, in the Department, with regard to teacher supply and demand. In that context, in November 2019 the Department published a technical report –‘Developing a Teacher Demand and Supply Model for Ireland 2020-2036’. The report was updated in May 2021 with projections of teacher demand and supply to 2038. 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.
The Department commenced development of a Policy Statement for ITE in 2019, to take stock of significant changes to the policy landscape across the past decade, including the emerging data around teacher supply. Extensive consultations have taken place with stakeholders connected with ITE and the document is due to be finalized in the coming months.
