An insider's guide to education:Remember a time when the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) - the main advisory group on such matters - set the agenda? A reminder of the group's fading powers came when the Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, rolled out her planned changes for Leaving Cert Irish last week. And it was a familiar story; the changes envisaged by the NCCA were politely ignored.
Something similar happened when Hanafin received the NCCA's bulky dossier for overall reform of the Leaving Cert; she called it the "Rolls Royce option", and moved on. The Minister has accepted some of the NCCA's proposals on Leaving Cert maths with reservations, but there is an abiding impression in education circles that the council has been sidelined.
Not surprisingly, all of this has damaged morale at the NCCA. But the Department seems in no mood to build bridges. Some in Marlborough Street believe the NCCA proposals are - generally - too impractical and too costly. The council will be hoping the next education minister takes a different view.
Whatever about the rest of us, INTO members should have enjoyed a profitable Cheltenham. Some smart primary teachers (is there any other type?) punted on Sublimity (right), trained by John Carr (no, not that John Carr). It obliged at 16/1.
Armed with nominations from several Dublin branches, Bernard Lynch is contesting the ASTI vice-presidency, while former president Bernadine O'Sullivan - who performed so well in the last Seanad elections - could take a seat this time round.
Lynch resigned from the ASTI two years ago when O'Sullivan lost out during the selection process for deputy general secretary. In 2001, he took a High Court action challenging his exclusion from the executive meetings for alleged disruptive behaviour. Eventually, the union agreed to pay his legal fees of €76,000.
Last year, Lynch refused to attend parent-teacher meetings at his school, Marian College. But he has now backed down.
One thing's for certain - things should be lively if the Lynch/O'Sullivan bandwagon begins to roll.
As part of its big promotional push, UCD likes to tell us about the high standards of its students. But economics lecturer Moore McDowell is not, apparently, on message. Last week, he told RTÉ's Today with Pat Kenny how he had to explain the meaning of the word reconcile to his economics students. So much for our highly skilled workforce, he sighed.
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