Vol. 434 No. 2
103 Mr. M. Kitt asked the Minister for Education if extra places will be allocated in teacher training colleges in view of the number of students who had the 445 points and did not receive their first choice and the reintroduction of the 10 per cent of places for Gaeltacht students.
The intake to the Colleges of Education for primary teachers was increased this year to 415 places, compared with 312 places in 1992. This intake includes places reserved for Gaeltacht candidates under the special provision operated by my Department since the 1960s.
I understand that some of the colleges operated the "random selection" procedure this year in allocating the final places. This procedure applies where the number of candidates on the cut-off point (in this case 445 points) exceeds the number of remaining places. While I appreciate that some candidates were disappointed not to receive a place because of this "random selection", it would not be possible to allocate additional places for such cases.
