Teaching Council post-primary subject criteria: the 60-ECTS rule, the essential-areas rule, and three subjects with no aptitude test provider at all

Ireland does not ask whether your degree was good. It asks whether it contained the specific things the Teaching Council’s published criteria name, in the credit volumes they specify, for the subject you want to teach. That document is the one that decides your application, and it is public.

The document, and the date on it

The current version is titled Curricular Subject Requirements (Post-Primary), subtitled “For persons applying for registration on or after 5 January 2026” and “Effective from 5 January 2026”. Its foreword confirms the reach:

“The post-primary subject criteria set out in this document will be effective for registration purposes with the Teaching Council from 5 January 2026 for both routes to registration … They will also apply to applicants for registration from outside Ireland applying for registration after this date.”

The document also records that two curricular subjects are new: “New curricular subjects, Drama, Film and Theatre Studies and Climate Action and Sustainable Development are included in this document and are effective for registration purposes from 5 January 2026.”

We are stating what this version says and when it takes effect. We did not compare it against the previous version, so this page makes no claim that the academic requirements were tightened or relaxed on that date. If someone has told you they were, ask them which two documents they compared.

A note on naming, because it causes confusion. The Council’s public pages now organise registration by “Qualified in the Republic of Ireland” and “Qualified outside of the Republic of Ireland”, and refer to Route 3 (Further Education) and Route 4 (Other). Post-primary registration is governed by what the requirements document calls “Regulation Two of the Regulations” — the Teaching Council [Registration] Regulations 2025 — which is what older material means by “Route 2”. Same thing, current name.

The standard requirements, which apply to every subject

The foreword sets out conditions that sit above the individual subject criteria:

• “Minimum pass result includes pass by compensation.”
• “Applicants must also have completed a programme of post-primary initial teacher education (age range 12-18 years) carrying a minimum of 120 ECTS credits (or equivalent).”
• “There must be evidence of 60 ECTS credits of specific study in each curricular subject. The 60 ECTs credits relating to the specific study of a curricular subject may not be drawn from studies or ECTS credits in initial teacher education components of Teaching Council accredited concurrent or consecutive programmes of initial teacher education.”
• A discretion for older qualifications: “Applicants who have commenced a programme of initial teacher education prior to 01/09/2014 carrying less than 120 ECTS credits may be exempted from this requirement at the Council’s discretion.”
• And the sentence that governs everything below: “an applicant must meet all of the criteria for the particular curricular subject.”

The third bullet is the one that catches concurrent-degree holders. If your teacher-education credits and your subject credits came from the same integrated programme, the education credits cannot be counted towards the subject’s 60.

What a subject criterion looks like

The subjects are individually specified and the structure repeats. Mathematics, quoted to show the shape:

“(a) Applicants must hold a degree-level qualification, with Mathematics studied up to and including third-year level or higher (or modular equivalent). (b) The qualifying degree must be equivalent to at least Level 8 on the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ) and with a minimum pass result in all examinations pertinent to the subject of Mathematics. (c) The qualifying degree must carry at least 180 ECTS … credits (or equivalent) with the specific study of Mathematics comprising at least 60 ECTS credits (or equivalent).”

Then the content test. For Mathematics the document lists five essential areas — Analysis “(must include a module or modules in Multivariable Calculus)”; Algebra “(must include a module or modules in Linear Algebra)”; Geometry “(must include a module or modules in Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometry)”; Probability; and Statistics “(must include a module or modules in Statistical Inference)” — followed by a list of optional areas from which the remaining credits may be drawn.

So there are four separate tests in every subject: level (at least NFQ Level 8), degree volume (at least 180 ECTS), subject volume (at least 60 ECTS in that subject), and content (all named essential areas present). Failing any one produces a shortfall.

Different subjects add their own conditions. Agricultural Science requires that “Laboratory/practical work must be completed in the course of the qualification”. Ancient Greek requires “not less than 10 ECTS credits (or equivalent) studied at third-year level or higher”.

We are not reproducing the criteria for all thirty-two subjects here. The document is public, free and authoritative; read the pages for your own subject.

Curricular languages carry two extra hurdles

Languages are specified as a group covering eleven languages — Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish — with the standard structure plus two additional requirements that catch native and heritage speakers off guard.

Linguistic competence. You must show “a minimum level of B2.2 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (or equivalent) from the higher education institution where the qualification was completed”, or “certification of achieving level B2.2 standard of an independent language competency test”.

Immersive Educational Experience. “Prior to completion of their teacher education studies, applicants should provide verifiable evidence of an immersive educational experience in the curricular language of a minimum of four weeks duration. This may be accessed in two blocks, each of which must be at least two weeks. At least one of these blocks must be in a setting where the language is the vernacular language of the region/country.” The permitted forms are a language course, working as a staff member in an educational setting, an action research project relevant to teaching studies, or school placement.

The Council’s registration page makes the IEE a gate rather than an extra: “If you are applying to teach a curricular language or Irish/Gaeilge, you must meet the requirement of Immersive Educational Experience.”

Three subjects have no published aptitude test provider

If the Council finds a shortfall, it registers you with a condition, and one way to clear a subject shortfall is an aptitude test — which in the Council’s usage means “a specific module or course of study” at a named Irish institution. The Council publishes which institutions provide for which subject.

Compare the two documents and a gap appears. The requirements document specifies thirty-two curricular subjects. The aptitude test provision list names providers for twenty-nine of them. The three with no listed provider are Ancient Greek, Hebrew Studies and Latin.

The same mismatch shows up inside curricular languages. Eleven languages are specified; the aptitude test provision covers French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish across four institutions. Arabic, Lithuanian, Mandarin Chinese, Polish and Russian have no listed provision.

Provision is also thin at the edges in subjects that do appear. Accounting and Business each list a single institution; Mathematics lists seven. If your shortfall lands in a subject with one provider, your timetable is that provider’s timetable.

This is our reading of two of the Council’s own published documents, not something the Council states. What it means in practice, if you are affected, is a question to put to the Council directly before you plan a route — because the Council’s other published way of clearing a shortfall is “Teaching in the area of the shortfall (also known as an adaptation period)”.

The process around all this

Applications are decided by “the Qualifications Panel which is made up of Teaching Council members or in certain circumstances, the Director of the Teaching Council”. Processing “may take up to 12 weeks from the date we receive all required documents”, and an incomplete application is deleted after three months.

Two procedural points worth knowing:

The evidence burden is entirely yours. “Assessments are based only on the information provided by the applicant. It is your responsibility to ensure that each module descriptor contains sufficient detail for assessment.” The Council specifies what a module descriptor must contain — content summary, delivery method, assessment method, learning outcomes, and “Any periods of supervised school placement or supervised teaching practice.” Against criteria that name specific modules, a one-line course title will not do the work.

There is a review right with a short clock. “You have the right to request a review of the decision by the Registration Review Group within 21 days of the Panel’s decision.”

Conditions normally carry three years to comply, with an extension route in certain circumstances. Every applicant qualified abroad also receives the History and Structure of the Irish Education System condition — see the History and Structure condition.

One relief worth noting: the Council states that “Employment within schools to teach subjects is decided by each school. It is not a registration requirement to be recognised for additional subjects.” You do not have to be registered for every subject you might be asked to teach.

What to do

1. Download the requirements document and read only your subject’s page. It is two pages and it is decisive.
2. Map your transcript to the four tests — level, 180 ECTS, 60 ECTS in the subject, and every essential area.
3. Obtain full module descriptors in the Council’s specified format before applying, with certified translations where needed.
4. If you are applying for a language, deal with B2.2 evidence and the four-week immersive experience early; both are evidenced from before your teacher education finished.
5. If your subject is one of the three with no listed aptitude test provider, ask the Council how a shortfall in it would be cleared before you rely on that route.
6. Diarise the 21-day review window the moment a decision arrives.

What this page does not do

It does not reproduce the criteria for all thirty-two subjects, and it is not a substitute for reading the document for yours. It does not assert that the 5 January 2026 version raised or lowered any requirement — we did not compare versions.

It does not predict your assessment. That is the Qualifications Panel’s decision on your documents.

All quotations were read from the Teaching Council’s own document and pages on 3 September 2026, and the requirements document is reissued.