Minister McHugh welcomes third national consultative forum on teacher supply
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Last updated on
The Minister for Education and Skills, Joe McHugh TD, today (Thursday 28 November) welcomed the third national consultative forum to be held under the Teacher Supply Action Plan.
In recognition of the significant challenges that some schools experience in recruiting teachers, the Teacher Supply Steering Group, chaired by the Secretary General of the department, was established.
At primary level, the recruitment of substitute teachers is problematic while at post-primary the recruitment of teachers in certain specific subject areas, such as STEM, modern languages, as well as Irish and home economics is proving difficult.
Minister McHugh said:
“The latest forum provides an opportunity for all of us who have a stake in education to consider and respond to the progress to date. It is also about offering new ideas.
“Solutions to the current and future challenges on teacher supply requires the input and cooperation of stakeholders at all levels. There has been a hugely positive engagement across all parts of the education sector on this issue and the forum is a great opportunity to continue this work. We want our stakeholders to contribute further to our understanding of the issues and to secure the solutions we need to address teacher supply.”
ENDS
(a) Steering Group on Teacher Supply: The Steering Group on Teacher Supply is leading the development of a programme of actions on teacher supply and overseeing its implementation. The Steering Group is chaired by the Secretary General of the Department of Education and Skills. The Group held its first meeting on 26 March 2018.
(b) Teacher Supply Structures: The Teacher Supply Implementation Group supports the work of the Steering Group. The Implementation Group is in turn supported in its work by a number of working groups which consider and report on particular issues.
(c) Teacher Supply Action Plan: The Teacher Supply Action Plan contains a range of priority actions identified through the work of the Steering Group and engagement with stakeholders.
These actions are classified under four broad headings:
Actions to date include:
The Teacher Supply Action Plan is available below: