Changes to standards for teacher degrees welcomed

Higher Leaving Certificate standards to get into teacher training degrees should not rule out huge numbers of students, a union has said.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) has welcomed Education Minister Richard Bruton’s announcement of the first significant changes to entry requirements for primary teaching in decades.

Students will have to have at least 60% in higher-level Leaving Certificate Irish from 2019 to guarantee consideration for places on bachelor of education (BEd) degrees, up from the 50% currently needed. It was 55% up to last year (a C3 or better), but reduced slightly this year when new Leaving Certificate grades were separated by 10 percentage points instead of 5pp previously.