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Minister Quinn welcomes introduction of compulsory registration for all teachers
Section 30 of the Teaching Council act commences today
The Minister for Education & Skills, Ruairí Quinn T.D., has welcomed the official commencement of Section 30 of the Teaching Council Act 2001.
As from today (Tuesday 28th January 2014), all teachers in recognised schools must be registered with the Teaching Council, the professional standards body for teachers, in order to be paid by the State. A person employed permanently as a teacher who is not registered cannot be paid, in such cases the Department will sanction a substitute teacher.
The commencement order has been widely publicised. Teachers have been notified of the changes through their payslips and also through individually targeted communications stretching back months in order to encourage registration. More than 87,000 teachers are now on the Teaching Council register with only a handful yet to apply for registration.
Minister Quinn said, “Today is an important and historic date in the promotion and regulation of teaching. For more than a decade now teacher unions have been calling for the commencement of Section 30. Finally, that day has arrived and I believe it signals an important milestone.
“From now on, only registered teachers in recognised schools will be paid by the state. I believe this is in the best interests of our children and our education system as a whole. I also believe that the role of the Teaching Council will be strengthened through this move which is a further step towards full regulation of the teaching profession.”
Alongside Section 30, the Minister is also signing the Education Act 1998 (Unregistered Persons) Regulations 2014. This is to allow schools only in urgent or unforeseen cases to engage an unregistered person, when no registered teacher is available. This is in order to avoid school closures or class cancellations. In such cases the maximum length of time an unregistered person can be engaged is five days.
The introduction of Section 30 also paves the way for the remaining functions of the Teaching Council to commence. This will ensure that the Council has the authority to investigate cases of professional misconduct or medical fitness.