To ask the Minister of Education how his Department ensures that all newly-qualified teachers receive adequate teacher training in special educational needs support before entering the classroom.

The Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Northern Ireland deliver Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes that are aligned with, and prepare future teachers for the delivery of, the Northern Ireland Curriculum.

All ITE courses include a range of mandatory and optional modules for student teachers focused on Special Educational Needs (SEN). These programmes are designed to ensure, amongst other things, that new teachers achieve a set of professional competences identified by the General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland (GTCNI). All aspects of ITE programmes can be mapped against one or more of these competences and SEN is specifically referenced in competences 9, 15 and 21.

A key action in TransformED NI is to develop a core content framework for initial teacher education. This will ensure a consistent and unified approach that clearly identifies the essential skills and knowledge that all teachers should acquire before entering the classroom.