HEA issues call to higher education institutions to develop courses for existing teachers to qualify to teach mathematics, Spanish and physics

Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh T.D. has today (Thursday 19 December) welcomed a call for universities and colleges to create new programmes/courses for registered post-primary teachers to upskill.

The proposals are sought by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) to enable teachers to qualify to teach an additional subject in mathematics, Spanish or physics.

Teachers undertaking the new programmes will not have to pay fees.

The courses are intended to offer teachers a route to upskill to meet the Teaching Council’s curricular subject requirements in mathematics, Spanish and physics.

Minister McHugh said: “The initiative to start new programmes to help teachers to upskill is responding to the concerns of post-primary schools and management bodies. We know there are difficulties recruiting teachers in some subject areas but this is an opportunity for teachers to upskill free of charge and in a flexible way.

“I urge our higher education institutions to come forward with proposals to provide innovative approaches that will work for teachers.

“There is a strong need for these new programmes to be offered to build capacity for teachers to deliver these subjects in Irish medium settings and I would encourage institutions to come forward with proposals on that front.”

The HEA call is being made on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills and will be open to third level institutions that have primary or post-primary ITE programmes accredited by the Teaching Council.

Full proposals are to be submitted no later than 2nd March 2020.

It is intended that the programmes will be open to already qualified and registered post-primary teachers and they will be offered on a part-time, flexible basis. Participating teachers will not have to pay fees.

The HEA is seeking proposals to upskill teachers to teach in Irish-medium as well as English medium settings.

A panel of independent experts will assess the proposals and make recommendations to the Department of Education and Skills for final decision.

The initial intention is to have two intakes for the upskilling programmes, with the first intake in the 2020 calendar year.

Source: education.ie

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