‘I thought teaching would be a safe job’

KEVIN CARBERRY is one of hundreds of students who will face the dole or emigration this summer because his teaching qualifications may not be good enough to secure work in Irish primary schools.

About 2,000 trainee primary teachers will graduate in the next few months but hundreds of experienced teachers who lose their jobs at primary schools this year, because of government cuts in school staffing, are likely to pick up whatever jobs become available in schools with big increases in pupil numbers.

The reversal of fortunes in the sector is stark since Kevin, from Longford town, started his degree course at St Patrick’s College in Dublin in late 2006, along with more than 400 others.