Universities resist quotas on teacher-training courses

The Irish Times 16 February 2018

Third-level colleges are resisting plans by Minister for Education and Skills Richard Bruton to introduce quotas on the number of teachers they train in specific subjects, writes Carl O'Brien for The Irish Times.

As part of a series of measures to boost the supply of teachers in key subjects such as science, maths and languages, Bruton has announced plans to introduce subject quotas for postgraduate teacher education programmes at second level. School managers say many students are being left without qualified teachers in these subjects as a result of the shortages.

Figures compiled by school managers indicate there is an acute lack of maths, science and language teachers at second level, while there is an abundance of English, history and geography teachers. Dr Anne Looney, head of Dublin City University’s faculty of education, said the idea of quotas for particular subjects ignored the fact that additional science and maths graduates were not applying to teach in the first place.
Full report on The Irish Times site

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