NEWLY QUALIFIED teachers will be offered an opportunity to complete a detailed induction programme under plans set to be unveiled by Minister for Education Mary Coughlan today.
The Minister says the new procedures will boost teacher quality and assist newly qualified teachers.
An induction support programme is to be made available to all primary teachers qualifying from this year and to all new post-primary teachers from next year.
The programme will be delivered in education centres and other locations in out-of-school time for a minimum of 20 hours over the course of the school year.
It will provide professional support and further development suited to the professional learning needs of newly qualified teachers.
The department says the reform is an important one that should assist teachers overcome challenges and problems they face in adjusting to the classroom.
The Minister will tell the MacGill Summer School that support has been inadequate to help teachers make a successful transition from training and qualification to teaching in the classroom.
Induction support for teachers is very limited at primary level and, with some small number of exceptions, is virtually non-existent at post-primary.
At primary level, it excludes any meaningful involvement of the employer and is associated almost exclusively with an inspection process.
At post-primary level, it involves, in most cases, the sign-off by a principal teacher without any observation of the teacher’s work in the classroom.
The department said the system is therefore making a very limited contribution to teacher quality and reform is required.
The Minister will also confirm today that she intends empowering the Teaching Council in relation to the induction and probation of teachers, with effect from September 2012.
Last night she said: “While work will continue between now and then on the exact detail of the policy framework to be put in place for the Teaching Council in this regard, it is clear to me that we need to ensure that teachers are required, at a minimum, to satisfactorily complete an approved induction programme as part of a new probationary process that has robust external and internal verification mechanisms.”
Last night an INTO spokesman said an induction course for all teachers had been a long-standing demand of the union. The union would reserve any further comment until full details of the scheme become known.
