The pupil-teacher ratio should be reduced as a matter of urgency, according to Mary Hanley, newlyelected president of the Association of Principals and Vice-Principals of Community and Comprehensive Schools (APVC). On top of that, exquota vice-principals and career guidance counsellors should be provided in all second-level schools, she says. Motions on these points were passed unanimously at the APVC`s recent annual conference.

Curriculum overload is another matter of grave concern to APVC members, says Hanley. It's not fair, she says, that first-year students must study up to 14 subjects and Junior Cert students must sit up to 10 exams.

Hanley, vice-principal of St Caimin's Community School in Shannon, Co Clare, says these issues are of great concern to APVC members. With 160 members representing 60 schools around the country, Hanley's job over the coming year will be to liaise with various bodies and "get involved in the decisions and debates" which concern APVC members. A former teacher of Irish and history at Ballymun Comprehensive School in Dublin, Hanley moved in 1985 to her native Shannon and the newly-built school. Her other claim to fame is that she is the first woman in the country to manage a senior hurling team at club level.