ONCE upon a time in the education world, the only parent was the one sporting the streaming brow (courtesy of the sponsored walk, cake bake, raffle, jumble sale. . .) and the sweaty fist, encircling that most desirable of accessories, the crumpled banknote. Parents equalled money for the school pot.

Occasionally, of course, they timidly visited the school premises for the annual parent teacher meeting where they were told of their child's progress, then they left, grateful to have met those august personages, the teachers, for a few minutes.

Today, the education landscape has changed, with parents permeating every corner. They are to be found on course committees and advisory committees. Their voices can be heard in the White Paper. Their submissions are quoted in the media. Parents can be found on chat shows, on radio programmes and, yes, even, in schools, working as equal partners.

The key to this new role for parents lies in the old adage "information is power". Parents have been informing themselves of their rights and their role in education. It's a case of Rita educating Rita. Of course, their task is not complete but the National Parents' Councils are working to make it happen. And they are supported by teachers, the Department of Education and even the European Union.

Much of the current impetus is fuelled by funding from the EU Human Resources Operational Programme, which makes its way to the National Parents' Councils, courtesy of the In Career Development Unit of the Department of Education.

Paul Doyle, principal officer with the ICDU, explains that the unit was established in 1994 and it was at that time that an increased level of funding from the European Social Fund came onstream.

"That has enabled significant developments regarding the partners in education, including parents, being afforded opportunities to take on their appropriate and important role," he says.

Doyle, however, was coy about disclosing the exact amount of funding the parents councils receive and says that each application for each separate programme is considered on its merits.

As well as funding programmes put together by the National Parents' Councils, the ICDU also provides advice and expertise and evaluates the programmes. Doyle is enthusiastic about the future role of the newly christened education centres, formerly teacher centres.

The National Parents' Council Primary has already put an impressive number of programmes in place. Ann Colgan, manager of the parents' programme, explains that the first pilot programme was run in Autumn 1994.

"Parents involved in supporting parents that's the fundamental basis of this programme and something quite different to what's happening in other countries, where training is largely provided by professionals," she says.

"I think it's unique to have a parents' organisation charged with the responsibility and given the resources to identify the needs and to develop programmes. That's really good practice. I think we have to be very appreciative of the Department for supporting that practice," adds Colgan.

Their first objective is to provide help to parents to enable them to undertake their own personal responsibility for their children's learning.

Parents can have a huge influence on their children's success as learners, she says. Almost three quarters of children's language and vocabulary will be developed before they go to school. They will have gained learning skills such as concentration, interest in books, ability to get on with other people, and curiosity. These are genuine learning skills that parents can encourage, says Colgan.

"We feel that one of the best ways is to provide parents with information and give them an insight into how children learn. So, one of our programmes is an information programme.

Another approach has been to develop a new programme, Parenting for Learning. There are dozens of parenting programmes, admits Colgan, but very few focus specifically on how parents and children interract in a learning situation. Most, she says, are focused on discipline and behaviour.

The NPC Primary will pilot this programme soon. One of Colgan's concerns is that a lot of work has been concentrated in Dublin so she is looking at the possibility of using distance learning as a tool.

NPC Primary is also trying out local radio as a delivery mechanism. A pilot project, initiated with Radio Kerry, consists of a series of six interviews with education specialists. Parents can ring in with their comments and feedback.

A second major objective of NPC Primary is to try and develop areas of partnership between parents and teachers.

"It is difficult for parents and teachers to find new ways of working together and building trust and reshaping the old traditional boundaries," she says.

"We feel that through this programme NPC can offer practical help. One of the first efforts of the Home School Partnership Programme was to offer support to small groups to undertake partnership projects with themes such as home and school supporting literacy development; working together for our local heritage; developing leisure interests; home and school supporting children's self esteem and working together for a better environment.

Last year, 60 projects took place in five counties this year, the programme has been extended to include a further six counties.

Another initiative by the parents' council is provide training for new parent associations.

At present, there are about 1,000 primary schools with parent associations, which means that about two thirds of schools do not have associations. NPC Primary is putting a team of parent trainers in place, whose job will be to assist new associations. The focus is very much on respecting the relationship that exists between parents and teachers and making parents clear about their role, says Colgan. Last year, 90 new associations used this service.

COLGAN says she is hoping to put a number of joint initiatives with the new education centres in place but this is still at the planning phase. And if all that is not enough, NPC is developing a number of projects in the innovation and best practice area. One practical pilot focuses on school codes of behaviour and trying to get teachers, parents and pupils to work together to develop a "happy" school.

Eamon De Valera would surely have been proud. These developments are certainly in line with the aspirations of the Constitution. Article 42.1 states that: "The State acknowledges that the primary and natural educator of the child is the family and guarantees to respect the inalienable right and duty of parents to provide, according to their means, for the religious and moral, intellectual, physical and social education of their children".

As to the future, when the funds dry up in 1999, the NPC is working to have trainers in place so programmes can continue, even if the funding is reduced.