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.

In maths, those doing ordinary level previously had to get at least 40%, but that will rise to 60% or higher (at least an O4 grade) from 2019. The same minimum grade will be required for English at ordinary level, but the difference in standard is less as BEd applicants already need to get at least 50%.

INTO assistant general secretary Peter Mullan said the review which prompted the changes was welcome.

“The new standards are also welcome because people need to be confident that teaching continues to attract top-quality candidates,” he said. “But it should also be noted that these are minimum standards, and the vast majority of successful applicants who enter teacher education get better grades than these.”

Mr Bruton has also retrospectively reduced the minimum grade at higher level in English and maths from a H6 (40%-50%) to H7 (30% to 40%) which could see around a dozen people who did not get offered places this autumn being made late offers to begin a BEd or to defer entry until next year.