An insider’s guide to education
- The three teacherunions are between a rock and a hard place in framing their response to those public service cuts.
At present, the unions are confining their response to low intensity action. The various directives ban co-operation with the likes of school development planning, preparatory work for inspections and after hours parent-teacher meetings.
But there is nothing in the response so far to concentrate minds in the Department of Finance.
That said, there is real anger among teachers about the cumulative 13 per cent cut in pay. And there is growing apprehension about the increasing threat to the public service pension.
But what can the unions do? With no partnership process in place, there is no forum in which to make a case.
There is a growing sense across the education sector that the teacher unions will take the pain – despite all the huff and puff about ratcheting up the war.
- Those Oscar nominationslast week represented a real coup for Ballyfermot Senior College and the entire Post Leaving Cert sector.
Four graduates were nominated including Nicky Phelan for Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty and Richie Baneham for Avatar.
PLC colleges are well placed to support this kind of innovation but the Government’s ‘cap’ on numbers is limiting the potential of the sector. Amid the Oscar ballyhoo, Peter MacMenamin of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland pointed out how over 6,200 students applied for 1,300 Ballyfermot places this year.
n What approach should the Higher Education Authority (HEA) adopt to the record number of CAO applications?
HEA boss Tom Boland has been insisting there is no need for panic as the under-funded universities take on more and more students.
However, some senior university figures would like to see the HEA adopt a more robust approach towards the Department of Education and Science.
But others insist the higher education sector has done well to retain most of its funding in the current economic circumstances.
- Gráinne Faller's recentarticle – Has Ireland missed the boat on international students?– drew a huge response from readers. The article underlined how Ireland was punching below its weight on international education – despite the huge potential of this market and the deep reservoir of goodwill towards this country. Don't expect any progress soon.
On RTÉ's Morning Irelandlast Thursday, Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe reported how the Department of Justice, Enterprise Ireland, Fáilte Ireland and the Department of Education were all on the case. There was talk of working parties and quality marks. Whatever happened to the proposed one-stop-shop that would sort out the mess? This problem needs one policy czar who can cut through the bureaucracy – not another game of pass-the-parcel among the various quangos and State departments.
- The Union ofStudents in Ireland yesterday launched its annual SHAG (Sexual Health and Guidance) week in Dublin. USI president, Peter Mannion, launched this year's campaign with the motto "Whoever you like, love safer sex". Make of that what you will!
- E-mail us, in confidence, at teacherspet@irishtimes.com
