TEACHER'S PET: It has been a bad year on the public relations front for the Christian Brothers. The debacle at Marino teacher training college has now been followed by the rumpus over the closure of St Michael's National School in Inchicore, Dublin.

On both occasions, the Brothers were caught on the back foot, reacting to events rather than shaping them. The Inchicore business was very damaging. The perception among some members of the public was that the Brothers were abandoning pupils from a disadvantaged community in their hour of need.

Late last week, the Brothers agreed to keep the school open for another year, under pressure from local politicians including Mary Upton and Gay Mitchell. Minister for Education Mary Hanafin was also very much on their case.

You have to feel some sympathy for the Brothers. Yes, both of these cases do not cast them in a good light - quite the reverse - but they have also made an immense contribution to Irish education, building schools and providing a good education, often in areas where the State had abdicated its responsibility. But, for reasons we can never quite fathom, the Brothers seem very defensive and are often slow to tell us the good news.

Will that decision to bring the 14 institutes of technology inside the Higher Education Authority (HEA) tent make any difference?

In a word, yes. It should free the IoTs from some of the local political squabbling. But does it also pose a threat to the booming arts and humanities sectors in the IoTs?

The HEA favours courses which meet national strategic objectives. Translation? It loves courses in science, hi-technology and the like. So, bad news for any IoT planning new courses in medieval history?

A quiet revolution is under way for the State's 20,000-plus second-level teachers. This month, their pay slip was actually in English! Which is useful if you don't know the Irish for incremental post or degree allowance.

For years, teachers had to reach for the Irish language dictionary just to understand their own salary. But this seems to be changing.

Isn't the whole situation bizarre when only a handful of the department's own staff have fluency as Gaeilge?

Speaking of Irish, we note that the monthly journal of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment is published in English and Irish. Half of the magazine is devoted to each language. Is it just us or is this just getting a little silly?