Something unusual happened yesterday. Amid the sound and fury about the ASTI threat to the summer exams, the voice of parents actually got an airing. The article by Barbara Johnston, of the Catholic Secondary School Parents Association (CSSPA), on the teachers' strike in this newspaper dominated Morning Ireland.
Her choice of language and the manner in which she compared ASTI members to terrorists may have been over the top. But she did manage to reflect the deep-seated frustration of many parents. And to get them heard.
Barbara Johnston, a 43-year-old businesswoman and mother of three, from Rush, Co Dublin, has been the driving force behind dramatic changes in the National Parents Council Post Primary (NPCPP), to which her group is affiliated.
The NPCPP is the recognised voice of secondary-school parents. It is a part-time organisation which gets £92,000 a year from the Government. It has no full-time staff.
Since it is the sole voice of secondary parents, it is represented on all Government review bodies on secondary education.
The parents' council is not directly elected by parents. Instead, it is made up of representatives from Catholic schools, minority religions, the Christian Brothers and vocational, community and comprehensive schools. Since each group has its own agenda, it can be very difficult to frame a clear policy.
Until recently, the NPCPP was a muted voice for parents with children in secondary schools. Its former president, Ms Rose Tully, and former spokesperson, Mr John Whyte, were very cautious in their public statements.
Under their leadership, the parents' council stood full square with the Department of Education in opposing school league tables. It had very little to say about teacher accountability.
Its relationship with the Department, the teacher unions and the management bodies was close and non-confrontational. It stood back from any forthright criticism of ASTI during last year's school closures.
Everything changed last November when Barbara Johnston broke ranks. When she advised parents, in an Irish Times article, to send their children to school in defiance of the ASTI's ban on supervision, she tapped into a well of frustration building up among parents. And she made national headlines.
In the process, she also began a chain of events which would lead to the removal of the ancient regime and its replacement by a new leadership.
The catalyst for change was an internal auditors' report into the NPCPP in January, which severely criticised its operations. The report criticised accounting procedures and the manner in which some expense payments were made.
There was no suggestion of any impropriety by anyone associated with the NPCPP at any level. Rather, the report said procedures needed to be tightened.
Since January, the NPCPP has a new leadership. The new president is Ms Marie Danaswamy, a highly regarded member of the parents' group for minority religions. A mother of six from Rathfarnham in Dublin, Ms Danaswamy works with the Irish Red Cross.
Yesterday, she distanced herself from Ms Johnston's comments in this newspaper. Despite this public exchange, Ms Johnston and Ms Danaswamy have one common purpose - both seem determined that parents have a forceful voice in Irish education.
It will not be easy. Both must juggle full-time jobs and their representative role. Aside from incidental expenses, neither are paid for representing hundreds of thousands of parents.
BOTH can be relied upon to do their best. But it may be that something more is needed. There is a compelling case for a fully revamped NPCPP along of the lines of the National Parents Council (Primary). This is a professional lobby group with a full-time staff, direct links to parents' associations and a formidable chief executive, Ms Fionnuala Kilfeather.
There are few signs that the NCPPP will be recast in this way. But Ms Johston's article has underpinned the potential lobbying power of parents. Now full-time professional structures are required to ensure parents will at last begin to punch their weight in Irish education.