THE GAS EXPLOSION at St Killian's Vocational School in New Inn, near Ballinsloe, Co Galway, last Thursday will focus the minds of many teachers on the general issue of safety in schools.

Mary Dowling Maher, a former ASTI president who has just completed an MSc in educational management on the 1989 Health and Safety Act, paying particular reference to laboratories, says that, in general, safety in schools has been neglected by educationalists for a number of years because the focus has been on curriculum reform. This, she hopes, is about to change.

"The whole issue, the power of the Act, has not been explored," Dowling-Maher says.

The issue of safety in schools has been treated as a "Cinderella" area since the Health and Safety Act was introduced, she adds.

Only recently the Department of Education brought out two publications - Safety in the School Laboratory: Disposal of Chemicals and Safety in School Science: A Code of Practice.

At the time of their publication last October, the only quibble the TUI and the ASTI had was the length of time it had taken the Department to respond to lobbying from the unions to provide for the safe disposal of harmful chemicals.

TUI education officer Rose Malone, reiterates her union's concern about safety. "We would take safety in schools very seriously," she says.

Although the union wants to encourage practical science in school, Malone points out that there's "an inherent danger" when dealing with certain chemicals and gases.