Anyone considering a career as a primary school teacher over the next few years is entitled to breathe a tiny sigh of relief. The Department and the HEA have decided that the country needs more primary teachers and have increased the number of training places available.

Some 3,000 new teachers are to be trained over the next five years. This represents an increase of almost fifty per cent on the 1992 to 1997 figure. Between now and the year 2002, a total of 600 training places will be available each year.

Despite the extra places, however, competition is likely to be as intense as it has been in the past. You only have to look at this year's second-round cut-off points, which ranged between 475 for non-Gaeltacht applicants at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Dublin, to 410 at the Church of Ireland Training College. Both figures are higher than final-round offers for those colleges last year.

However, cut-off points of more than 400 are less than the full story. Colleges testify to the extremely high calibre of teacher-training applicants in this country. "The first person into our B Ed course this year is coming in with 570 points," comments Tony Bronell, registrar of Mary Immaculate College, UL.

Five colleges offer primary school teacher training - St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Dublin; Mary Immaculate College, UL; St Mary's College (Colaiste Mhuire) Marino, Dublin; Froebel College of Education, Dublin and the Church of Ireland Training College, Dublin. The Church of Ireland College trains teachers for schools under the management of the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and the Methodist Church. Nowadays all primary school training courses lead to degrees.

First-level teacher training is broadly-based. Students at St Mary's College, the Church of Ireland College and the Freobel College take some courses in their respective colleges and others in TCD. All three colleges offer an ordinary B Ed degree which can be upgraded to an honours degree by spending an extra year in TCD. In both Mary Immaculate College and St Patrick's College, courses lead to honours degrees.

Teacher training is tough. At primary level, training is carried out "concurrently" - that is, subject training and teacher training is combined. It involves both practical and academic work. Teaching practice is an important part of all programmes and students can expect to spend considerable amounts of time in the classroom.

At primary level too, a great emphasis is placed on class preparation. The so-called New Curriculum - which was first introduced in 1971 but has been updated - changed the emphasis of primary school teaching from being subject-centred to being child-centred. Teaching methods are now built around teaching the whole child. The preparation, planning of lessons using a range of aids and materials is vital to this.