The Minister for Education is to increase the supply of trained primary teachers amid claims that school principals are struggling to fill hundreds of posts. Dr Woods said yesterday he was providing for the intake of over 1,200 students to the teacher training colleges. He announced that almost 2,000 fully qualified primary teachers would become available within the next year, compared to fewer than 300 six years ago.
The Minister was responding to INTO claims that the Government had been slow to respond to the staff crisis at primary level, where an estimated 1,000 untrained teachers are working. The INTO has claimed that the Irish-language requirement is also a major obstacle to the recruitment of experienced teachers from Northern Ireland and Britain.
Dr Woods said qualified teachers from Britain and other EU states who did not have the Irish-language qualification were given provisional recognition which enabled them to teach in most schools for five years.