Action Plan for Education 2018
- Published: 08 February 2018
The Action Plan for Education 2018 was launched on Wednesday, 7 February 2018 in St Audoen’s NS, Dublin. Minister Bruton announced over 370 actions aimed to make Ireland’s Education and Training Service the best in Europe by 2026.
Some key actions in the 2018 Action Plan include:
- School Excellence Fund: Support school clusters to undertake innovative projects in areas of Digital, Disadvantage, Creativity, Gaeltacht and School Inspection under the School Excellence Fund.
- Leadership: Improve middle management structures in schools and empower school leadership with training, mentoring and resources. A proportion of the CPD budget will be dedicated to delivering on strategic priorities such as innovation and leadership.
- Digital: Progress new maths curriculum for primary schools to include elements of coding. Continue work of Minister’s Digital Implementation group of experts.
- Disadvantage: Update DEIS Plan. Develop a more tailored resource allocation model for DEIS schools.
- Parental Choice: Enact the Parent and Student Charter Bill and the School Admissions Bill. Shortly commence Reconfiguration for Diversity process to deliver step up in a number of multi-denominational schools.
- Wellbeing: Recruit 10 more NEPS psychologists. Provide more guidance to schools on the use of external providers. Publish Wellbeing Policy Statement. Expand Student Support Teams.
- Special Education: Develop first ever In-School Speech and Language Therapy Service. Undertake comprehensive assessment of the SNA scheme to ensure we are achieving the best outcomes for children with special educational needs.
- Critical skills: Deliver new, revised literacy and numeracy targets given the success of Irish students in meeting existing ones.
- Curriculum: Develop new Religion and Ethics programme for primary schools.
- Teacher supply: establish a Teacher Supply Steering Group, build on initiatives already announced and develop a policy on Teacher supply to support the availability of relevant teaching resources across the system in the short, medium and long term.
- Gaeltacht: Implement Gaeltacht Schools Policy, for which the budget this year has doubled. Issue grants and resources for schools who have opted into Gaeltacht schools scheme. Commence Schools Excellence Fund – Gaeltacht. Commence new
M.Ed programme for Irish language teachers. - Ongoing Review: Every agency under the remit of the Department of Education and Skills will be reviewed to ensure they are in line with the ambition to be the best in Europe. First reviews to commence in 2018
