Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 11 February 2026
150. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Education and Youth the number of students who applied to undertake a teaching degree each year, by gender, for each of the years 2020 to 2025; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10794/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department does not hold data the number of students who applied to undertake a teaching degree. The Central Applications Office (CAO) processes applications for undergraduate courses in Irish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).
In seeking to assist you in answering this query we have requested this information directly from the CAO.
The CAO response is attached for information.
Table 1: Total Applications1 by Course Category2 and Gender3 2020 - 2025:
Course Category: ISCEDf Narrow Field : (011) Education4
|
|
Gender |
|
|
|
Year |
Male |
Female |
Total |
|
2020 |
6,424 |
18,099 |
24,523 |
|
2021 |
6,512 |
19,628 |
26,140 |
|
2022 |
6,713 |
20,292 |
27,005 |
|
2023 |
6,938 |
20,363 |
27,301 |
|
2024 |
6,972 |
19,176 |
26,148 |
|
2025 |
7,058 |
20,379 |
27,437 |
Course Category: CAO Specialist Category : (001) Primary Education
|
|
Gender |
|
|
|
Year |
Male |
Female |
Total |
|
2020 |
2,098 |
8,763 |
10,861 |
|
2021 |
2,041 |
8,671 |
10,712 |
|
2022 |
1,782 |
8,077 |
9,859 |
|
2023 |
1,495 |
7,249 |
8,744 |
|
2024 |
1,761 |
7,733 |
9,494 |
|
2025 |
1,761 |
8,252 |
10,013 |
Course Category: CAO Specialist Category : (002) Secondary Education5
|
|
Gender |
|
|
|
Year |
Male |
Female |
Total |
|
2020 |
4,154 |
5,899 |
10,053 |
|
2021 |
4,104 |
5,547 |
9,651 |
|
2022 |
4,551 |
6,738 |
11,289 |
|
2023 |
4,968 |
7,773 |
12,741 |
|
2024 |
4,789 |
6,688 |
11,477 |
|
2025 |
4,825 |
7,057 |
11,882 |
Footnotes:
1: Source of data is CAO Board of Directors reports from 2020 - 2025 (2025 is provisional until official publication of report)
2: Caution should be exercised when interpreting trends in course category numbers from year to year, as courses may be added and removed in each course category area and occasionally courses may have their course category code recategorised by the Higher Education Institute.
3: From 2020, the CAO allowed applicants to indicate that they prefer not to say their sex (PNTS). For data privacy reasons and In order to continue the statistical time series for users, the aggregation method for these tables allocated these very small number to either male or female. It is possible in the future to create a new category of PNTS if the numbers become large enough to publish without potential data privacy breaches.
4: This refers to Level 8 courses , there are some applicants to Level 7/6 Education courses but these would not be considered Primary or Secondary teaching courses. Please also note that the ISCEDf Broad Field for Education contains the same courses as the ISCEDf Narrow Field.
5: Please note that not all Secondary Teaching courses in this category were classified with ISCEDf of Education by the Higher Education Institute
