Ireland's teacher training colleges have risen to meet the increased demand for primary school teachers, but competition for places is still keen, writes Gráinne Faller

As career sectors go, primary school teaching has been through a turbulent few years. A severe shortage of trained primary school teachers at the beginning of this decade led to an enormous growth in the intake of the colleges of education. The number of places available doubled. Interestingly, while points might have been expected to drop as a result, they have remained reasonably static, rarely dropping to below 450.

"The quality of the individuals entering the training colleges is still very high," says John Carr, General Secretary of the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO). "They are all drawn from the top quarter of the candidates." Course entry is competitive and a number of private grind schools such as The Institute of Education, Yeats College Galway and Limerick Tutorial College sent a significant number of students to the colleges in 2005.

There are five colleges of education in the State, four of which are based in Dublin. A Bachelor in Education is the standard qualification and the colleges of education are affiliated to different universities that award the degrees. For the most part, students seem to go to the college that is most convenient. Mary Immaculate College in Limerick largely caters for students in the south and west of the country. Dublin colleges have a relatively large intake of students from outside of Dublin, mainly coming from the east, midlands and northwest of the country.

The biggest colleges are St Patrick's College in Drumcondra, affiliated to DCU, and Mary Immaculate College which is affiliated to UL. Both colleges cater for students studying for the Bachelor in Education as well as other undergraduates. Students take three years to qualify with an honours degree in education.

The other colleges, Coláiste Mhuire Marino, Froebel College of Education and Church of Ireland College of Education (CICE) are all affiliated to TCD. Lectures are split between their respective campuses and Trinity. Although students in these colleges qualify after three years, Trinity requires a fourth year of part-time study in order for students to obtain an honours degree.

The colleges cater for different kinds of students. The smallest college is the Church of Ireland College of Education in Rathmines and, obviously enough, this trains students who will eventually teach in Church of Ireland schools. Coláiste Mhuire Marino seems to attract a relatively large number of candidates from Gaelscoileanna. While it does not provide training through Irish per se, the importance of the language in the daily college life is emphasised.

While still a reasonably small institution, Froebel College has greatly increased in size in recent years to meet the demand for trained teachers. The feeder list for Froebel illustrates a much-discussed point as the top six feeder schools for the college are girls' schools. This feature of primary school teacher training shows little sign of abating as the profession continues to attract mainly women. Well over half of the top 10 feeder schools to the biggest college, St Patrick's in Drumcondra, are also girls' schools.

The higher level Irish requirement is often blamed for the lack of male candidates, but, according to Carr, this is too simplistic as the gender imbalance in teaching is an international trend. The Irish requirement applies only to Ireland and yet the problem is worldwide.

Gaelscoileanna, however, feature quite strongly, in particular on the Coláiste Mhuire list. While Gaeltacht students receive a points concession in teacher training colleges, Gaelscoileanna outside of the Gaeltacht, whose students do not benefit from the concession, are a bigger presence on the lists. Irish is certainly an advantage in a training that places a big emphasis on competence in the language.

The colleges of education have increased the number of postgraduate courses available. As well as the H Dip in Education (Primary) which is a popular and highly competitive course, some colleges are now offering postgraduate courses in areas such as special needs education.