One of the criticisms of teaching is that there isn't a great promotional structure, says John White. In fact, well over 50 per cent of teachers have posts of responsibility, he points out.

"The problem really comes when a teacher is promoted to a principal or deputy principal post and he or she is essentially being promoted out of the classroom. It's a problem nobody has been able to come to grips with satisfactorily."

Outside of straightforward promotion, White says there are quite good opportunities at present for experienced teachers to become involved in other education-related activities. For instance, there are now three Leaving Certs - the traditional Leaving Cert, the Leaving Cert Applied and the Leaving Cert Vocational. New subjects are being introduced and old curricula revised. Quite a number of teachers have been seconded to help introduce these programmes. For instance, White points to the new English curriculum which will be introduced in 1999. Ten teachers will be seconded to travel to schools to help teachers introduce the new programme. All of this means, that you will not necessarily spend your entire teaching career in the traditional classroom setting.