An insider's guide to education.

Is Noel Dempsey staying in Education after all?

The received wisdom has been that the Minister would move on in the planned reshuffle next July. That was certainly the view of some senior figures in education. But Dempsey's signal that he has no plans to vacate the Marlborough Street hotspot has come as a shock to some of those already speculating on his successor.

In many ways, keeping Dempsey in Education makes good sense. No, he hasn't courted popularity with the teachers, but do we really need another politician who caves in whenever a vested interest cracks the whip?

Dempsey has a strong record. He managed to secure support for the supervision deal by addressing ASTI members directly. He has secured new, more parent-friendly arrangements for parent/teacher meetings. He has ended the scandal of the erosion of the school year by introducing standardised school terms. He has also addressed the scandal of dilapidated school buildings, which was neglected by so many of his predecessors. His achievements in securing more than €200 million per year for school buildings has been acknowledged by the INTO.

Dempsey now has two major issues on his agenda - the forthcoming OECD report on third-level and the report on the future of Irish education, which will emerge from the Your Education System (YES) process. Neither report is due until late this year or even early next year, in the case of the YES document.

It may be that it would suit the Minister, and perhaps the Taoiseach, to allow him to continue his task in Education. It seems clear that he does not want to go - unless he is offered one of the big prestigious portfolios such as Finance or Foreign Affairs. So will Bertie be happy to let him stay?

Who says teaching unions are only interested in their own pay and conditions?

The charge could certainly not be levelled against the INTO, which regularly produces outstanding work on issues such as educational disadvantage and special needs.

This year, more than 20 per cent of the motions for the forthcoming INTO congress in Tralee deal with special needs. This reflects the real commitment of ordinary members of the union to their work in this area.

The lack of mutual solidarity among the universities was evident last week with the release of CAO figures showing a drop in the number of student applications.

Many colleges were slow about giving their own figures, but they were markedly less reluctant to talk about others who were doing less well. DCU, with a 7 per cent decline in applications, took something of a "hit" - although it should be said that the college is doing very well in attracting students to science courses.

We can expect more of this inter-college rivalry as the pressure builds to secure students and fill courses.

One of the downsides of the standardised school year is the way travel companies hike up the prices during mid-term and holidays.

In the old days, parents and teachers could access cheap flights as different schools took different holiday times. But with everyone off at the same time, the travel companies - which opposed the common school year - are making a killing. €600 to Malaga? No thanks.