Teacher's Pet

An insider's guide to education

- WHO AREthe big winners and losers in the grade inflation scandal which has had such a huge impact across the education system?

Politically, Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe is being rightly credited for his resolution in taking on the sensitive issue. His decision to launch an inquiry was even lauded by Brian Hayes of Fine Gael and Ruairí Quinn of Labour. To his credit, O’Keeffe – like Noel Dempsey – has always been sceptical about the extravagant claims made about Ireland’s “world class’’ education system. Intel and the rest told him we were average at best – and he responded.

- JIM O'HARA, general manager of Intel Ireland, and John Herlihy, a vice president with Google, also deserve great credit. It was O'Hara who played a key behind-the-scenes role to bring former Intel chief Craig Barrett to the Farmleigh summit last summer, when he first exposed the deep-rooted problems in Irish education.

Herlihy has also played a key role in alerting policy makers to the decline in academic standards among some Leaving Certs and graduates.

Herlihy and O’Hara have their own agenda – better graduates for their demanding US employers. But they are also proud Irishmen who have done their country some service.

- THE HIGHEREducation Authority also emerges with some credit from the fracas. Chief executive Tom Boland has had the courage to speak up on the issue when many others stayed silent. Last summer he described how "spoon-fed'' Leaving Cert students were struggling to cope at third-level and the worrying decline in standards noted by the academic community. Boland, head of research Eucharia Meehan, and communications director Malcolm Byrne also took the trouble to check out concerns about grade inflation in a meeting with Google six months ago.

- THE OTHERwinners were Brendan Guilfoyle, Simon Quinn and Martin O'Grady, of the Network for Irish Educational Standards who did such pioneering work on the issue. The disgraceful way in which third-level colleges sought to frustrate their demands for information is telling.

- THE UNIVERSITYCouncil of Trinity College Dublin also deserves credit for launching an investigation into grade inflation. How many other colleges bothered to follow suit?

- AND THElosers? The regulatory authorities – the State Examinations Commission, the Higher Education Teaching and Awards Council, and the Irish Universities Quality Board – have much to answer. All three should expect much more serious scrutiny.

- QUESTIONS MIGHTalso be asked again about the dismal performance of the various education departments in our third-level colleges. Why was it left to maths and finance lecturers at the Institute of Technology Tralee to sound the alarm? What is going on in the education departments? When was the last time any one of them published a paper which unleashed a real public debate? Why is there a constant focus on soft issues – and little assessment of quality, outputs and levels of accountability?

- E-mail us, in confidence, at teacherspet@irishtimes.com