Hanafin waits for word on Cabinet reshuffle

TEACHER'S PET:TOMORROW will tell us whether Mary Hanafin is leaving Education.

What of her legacy to date? Here's a quick check list. The good has included: her personal role in lifting the morale of the teaching profession; publication of school inspection reports; vastly increased resources for special needs; reform of medical education with new post-graduate courses; a new, more "user-friendly" Leaving Certificate timetable; the new emphasis on oral skills in Leaving Certificate Irish and the introduction of new subjects; the expansion in post-graduate education; her strong support for management reforms at third-level; the development of the new patronage model at primary level; and new reforms enabling schools to better address discipline problems;

But what of the bad?

Hanafin has been less sure-footed on class sizes, where there were broken promises, and on autism, where Mary O'Rourke's intervention set the public mood. She did achieve a double-digit growth in education spending in three of her four years in office, but OECD tables showing Ireland near the bottom of the spending league are still shameful.

That said, Hanafin's record in Education (thus far) is strong, far better than most of her predecessors. How many of her Cabinet colleagues have a better record in office?

STILL no word from the usually very active Gaelscoileanna movement about that Department of Education audit of school enrolment. The audit revealed how many gaelscoileanna had virtually no provision for special-needs students, travellers and other minorities.

It all begs the question: are the Gaelscoileanna elitist in nature? Or are they genuinely reaching out beyond the middle classes?

Speaking of elitism, many of the country's 50-plus fee-paying schools also have questions to answer. Some, such as Belvedere and Alexandra College, have strong special-needs support but others - including some very high-profile schools - have walked away from their responsibilities.

We would love to know what, if anything, the Conference of Religious in Ireland (Cori) and the various religious orders are doing to combat this educational apartheid?

ARRANGEMENTS are being made for that big conference on school patronage scheduled for Dublin's Royal Hospital Kilmainham on Friday June 27th. It will consider how patronage might change to reflect our more diverse society.

The Minister for Education will make a presentation to the conference, while the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, is also set to address it. The department is now casting around for other keynote speakers. Presumably, someone like the excellent Tom Collins from NUI Maynooth - a columnist in this newspaper - will be asked to give an overview.

In advance of the conference, the school management bodies, the teacher unions and the other education partners will be asked to outline their ideas on school patronage into the future. Most interest will centre on the submission from the Catholic Church. While Diarmuid Martin has been liberal and open-minded, there are indications that his views are not shared by all senior members of the hierarchy.