The Department of Education and Science is creating an additional 280 places at four teacher training colleges to deal with a serious shortage of primary schoolteachers. The 280 places are for postgraduates who want to become primary teachers.
The course will last 18 months and the places are in addition to the normal two year B.Ed programme which students apply for after their Leaving Certificate through the Central Applications Office. The Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) last night welcomed the additional places but said more were needed.
INTO general secretary Mr Joe O'Toole said 280 places needed to be available annually over the next five years. The intake to the B.Ed course would also need to be maintained at its current level over the next five years if chronic shortages were to be solved.
He said that in recent years the number of teachers retiring had been higher than the output from the teacher training colleges and there was also concern at the increase in teaching hours being allocated to unqualified teachers.
There has been a debate in education circles for some time about teachers from Northern Ireland being used to deal with the shortages. However, the requirement to take an examination in Irish is seen as an obstacle to this taking place.
Mr O'Toole said there was a "surplus" of teachers in Northern Ireland who could work in primary schools in the Republic, but the Department needed to make further moves to bring this about.
In Dublin this week, the Northern Ireland Minister of Higher and Further Education, Dr Sean Farren, said he would shortly be discussing the issue with the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Martin.
Applications for the new course have to be returned by January - the course begins in February. The four teacher training colleges involved are Colaiste Mhuire, Marino, Dublin; Froebel College of Education, Sion Hill, Dublin; St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Dublin; and Mary Immaculate College, Limerick.