The sense of regret at Micheal Martin's move from the education portfolio to health will be felt keenly by those with a particular concern for arts education. It is to be hoped that the new Minister for Education, Michael Woods, will maintain the sense of momentum in this domain of education which had its most recent expression at the official announcement that the Academy of the Performing Arts was on the cards.

Here, Martin said that he hoped to announce "an initiative to put in place a fully comprehensive policy in relation to arts education". This statement is unprecedented and shows evidence of real political will to address a significant shortcoming in Irish educational provision. It is welcome that, in addressing the particular need for a performing arts academy, the minister was clearly mindful of the more general need of the several hundred thousand citizens, whose artistic education falls within his department's responsibility.

Whatever policy emerges, it will need to be rooted in an educational rationale. Such a rationale, of which there is welcome evidence in the work of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, should rest upon a conception of the arts as distinctive forms of fundamental human enterprises in which we make and communicate important meanings. The arts should be considered as "the imaginative sciences", disciplines complementary to the mathematical or physical sciences - then their centrality, as well as their particular teaching and resource requirements, may become clearer.

So, what should be done? The immediate focus must fall on the professional development of primary school teachers. The teacher, on behalf of the state and in loco parentis, is charged with developing the full range of the young citizen's intelligence. There are indeed exceptions, but the rule remains that the development of our children's artistic intelligence is the Achilles' Heel of Irish education. I believe that the alignment of our colleges of education with our universities has established working definitions of intelligence and teaching practice in the colleges which are far from suitable for arts education.

As the colleges of education are primary engines of change in education, it follows that little of long-term consequence can result, unless remedial measures are taken in this sphere. A "new deal" is required for the arts within these colleges, so that decades of neglect can be tackled through significant investment in staff, space, time and materials. When The Place of The Arts In Irish Education was published by the Arts Council in 1979, this was one of its key arguments to Government, but despite the dedication of their very small arts staff, the position of the arts in our colleges of education has not improved at all. Doubtless, there will be some exceptional teachers of the arts, but the rule is not encouraging.

The current development of a national network of education centres provides the basis for regional teams of full-time specialist teachers charged with supporting their colleagues by a range of measures. These include the development of courses and resources which take full account of the revised primary curriculum, while reflecting local conditions and possibilities. These specialist teachers could also be available to assist with school plans for the arts and could, on occasion, act as "master teachers" supporting (but not supplanting) the teacher in the classroom. These arts teams could also work with local cultural organisations, so as to benefit from their expertise and resources and also to make the most of the link between the children's school lives and their lives in the community. An important feature of all of this work should be the development of teachers' personal comfort zones in the arts. Seeing the teacher as a person, and not only a pedagogue, should be an important part of any such programme.

The new academy is a joint initiative of the Departments of Arts and of Education and is the more welcome for that. Another focus for inter-departmental partnership could be a programme for the support of arts education by harnessing public resources in broadcasting and new information technologies.

There is much goodwill towards education among artists and practitioners of all sorts. With proper planning, appropriate training and a commitment to evaluation, this could be tapped to become a source of inspiration for programmes of personal and in-career development for practising teachers.

Notwithstanding the extraordinarily liberating "reach" of the new technologies, however, there are some profoundly important questions to be asked about their content and about the nature of the interaction provided both on-line and off-line. There is a compelling need to undertake action-based research to inform and advance policy and practice in this area.

Music education represents a particular challenge. The realities of the marketplace are what determine most children's experience of music and, for the most part, the marketplace positions the young person as a passive consumer of junk music. Notwithstanding the efforts of a range of, often voluntary, groups around the country and of many heroic parents, there has been, for many decades, a massive failure of educational leadership in the face of this reality. Among a range of measures required, is a significant investment in the human and material resources necessary for children to make music, to be musical citizens rather than just consumers. The long-standing plea of activists in the west of Ireland for a school of music should be examined sympathetically.

Martin Drury is director of the Ark, a cultural centre for children in Temple Bar, Dublin. He has worked in arts education for over 20 years as a teacher;as Arts Education Officer (Sligo/Leitrim); Artistic Director of TEAM Educational Theatre Company; and Education Officer of the Arts Council.