Teacher's Pet

AN INSIDER'S GUIDE TO EDUCATION

Education has still to take off as an election issue - even though it was ranked highly as a key priority for the public in a recent national poll. Another poll in last week's Clare Champion saw education feature as second only to health as the main issue of concern to voters.

Canvassers also report how the class size issue is surfacing on the doorsteps. Despite all this, education seems destined to be only a bit player in a campaign.

That said, the INTO campaign on class size has damaged the Government and taken much of the gloss off its education record.

On education, the Government would like the electorate to focus on the advances in special needs and newcomer education, the increased investment in school buildings and the promised 4,000 extra primary teachers. But those broken promises on class size do not help.

For their part, the Opposition is playing up those broken promises. It also wants to convey the message that overall spending on education still compares poorly with other OECD countries.

The Government parties hope to exploit what they see as their trump card in education: the popularity of Mary Hanafin. But the Government has been pushed back onto the defensive on education - when it was expecting to be pointing proudly to its record.

It all explains a certain frisson in the relationship between the INTO and Fianna Fáil.

The next education minister? The latest word suggest it could be one of the following: Brian Lenihan (FF) Richard Bruton (FG) and either Jan O'Sullivan or Eamon Gilmore (Lab).

What is the favourite movie of UCD students? Something trendy from David Lynch? Not quite. Instead, students opted for The Shawshank Redemption, the prison drama featuring Morgan Freeman (below), according to a poll by the University Observer. Other favourites included The Godfather, Goodfellas, The Usual Suspects, Donnie Darko and The Green Mile.

Favourite TV shows included Scrubs, The Simpsons, Lost and Desperate Housewives. Interestingly, all but one of the top 10 TV shows (Father Ted) were US-made. Whatever happened to the golden age of British TV?

Got any education gossip? E-mail us, in confidence, at teacherspet@irish-times.ie