An insider's guide to education

TEACHER'S PET:MINISTER FOR Education and Skills Mary Coughlan is set to launch a strong rearguard action to build support among teachers for the Croke Park deal. Over the next fortnight, the Minister will move to reassure teachers about the promised review of the teaching contract and other aspects of the deal.

The Tánaiste has already told the teaching unions that she is not taking a machete to the profession. Over the next 10 days, she will be spelling out the fine print, telling teachers their fears are exaggerated.

Will it be enough to win support for the deal? Who knows? At this stage, the INTO looks set to back the deal with the TUI set to oppose. But the outcome of the ASTI is difficult to call.

Meanwhile, some in the Department and some teacher union colleagues were less than pleased to see Peter MacMenamin’s harsh criticisms of the deal and the ICTU leadership in these columns recently. MacMenamin was a party to the deal and supported it until his executive voted it down. But MacMenamin is unrepentant, saying he has an obligation to reflect the views of his members.

** THE ISSUE of State funding for private fee-paying schools is back on the agenda after those new enrolment figures showing strong demand for places. Despite the recession, the parents of Ireland are still willing to stump up the cash.

But here’s a thought: if all of those who can afford to pay fees at second-level paid €5,000 in fees at university, colleges would reap an extra €130 million in revenue.

That’s a lot of money – and it would, at a stroke, remove our third-level colleges from that endless cycle of cost-cutting and debt.

Will it happen? Of course not.

For one, fees of any kind are off the agenda for the lifetime of the Government after the Green Party/Fianna Fáil deal on the Revised Programme for Government.

But, as our supposedly “world class’’ colleges sink into further debt, the issue of fees will not go away. The forthcoming Hunt Report, outlining a national strategy for higher education, will back the return of fees.

And some people in the Green Party are even having second thoughts about the decision to rule out fees. Memo to parents: the threat of fees has not gone away, you know!

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