Minister for Education Mary Coughlan has said teachers entering the classroom do not have the "requisite skills" to boost literacy and numeracy standards.
Her admission came during the launch of the Fianna Fáil policy document on education.
Ms Coughlan said she backed a radical overhaul of teacher training. She said academic ability was not sufficient and a much greater stress on teaching methodologies was also required.
The Minister's comments come in the wake of least year's OECD report which showed falling standards in literacy and numeracy among 15-year-olds. On literacy, Ireland has fallen from fifth to 19th in the world rankings, the steepest decline of any developed country. On maths and science, Ireland is ranked as "average.''
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin denied that Ms Coughlan had been "hidden away'' during the election campaign. "Absolutely not,” he said. "We are taking it issue by issue as you know. The economy has been at the heart of the debate. You've had Dara Calleary, you've had Brian Lenihan, you've had Michael McGrath dealing with the financial services. We've had different people in relation to the different policy documents that have been launched."
He also expressed full confidence in Ms Coughlan.
"When I appointed my frontbench, I made it very clear that Mary Coughlan is not just a minister or a Tánaiste but a spokesman for education on the frontbench and I've indicated in this policy document that education is my number one priority," Mr Martin said.
Under the policy, Fianna Fáil says it is committed to investment in new primary schools, resulting in additional 35,000 permanent places by 2016. Mr Martin said there would be no reduction in special needs assistants over the period of its plan and they would be capped at 2011 levels.
Ms Coughlan said Fianna Fáil will retain Irish as a compulsory Leaving Cert subject and would not abandon the language like Fine Gael. She also backed continued State support for fee-paying schools, saying this helped to protect minority faiths.
On higher education, Fianna Fáil says it opposes a graduate tax and would cap student fees at €3,500 per family.
Mr Martin, a former minister for education, said the party's record in this area was completely unmatched. He pointed to the €1 billion spent in supporting special education in 2010 and the huge commitment to research.
“Special education is a personal priority for me, it is a national priority for my party -and we have the record to prove it,” he said.
The Labour Party has said that in government it would reverse the charge on students attending post-Leaving Certificate courses.
Speaking at the launch of the party's education plan, Ruairí Quinn said it would allocate €27 million to keep the third level student charge at €1,500 per year.
