An insider's guide to education

It has been a disastrous week for the Central Applications Office (CAO).

As the deadline for applications approached, the CAO's computer system could not cope. The CAO could have put its hands up but instead its operations officer, Joe O'Grady, adopted a robust approach in his now infamous Morning Ireland interview.

The Galway-based CAO has only itself to blame for the debacle. For years, relations with the media have been frosty, with the CAO adopting a haughty, distant air with the hacks.

What happened last week was that the CAO adopted the same lofty tone towards the public - even as distressed students and their parents besieged the radio chat shows. Result? The roof fell in on the organisation.

Now the blame game has begun in earnest with some people turning their fire on O'Grady.

But why was an operations officer - with limited media experience - the person who had to defend the organisation last week? Where were the sultans of spin? And where was Ivor Glesson, the secretary and effective CEO of the organisation?

This was an accident waiting to happen.

Last June, several members of the CAO board expressed concern about the organisation's lack of media savvy during a regular board meeting. At that time, the organisation was in the wars for failing to tell the public about computer problems during the key Change of Mind process for students.

There was talk of a new, improved media strategy and the computer system was overhauled.

And what happened this week? The CAO again demonstrated a lamentable lack of proper public relations - and the computer system again failed to cope with the volume of traffic.

It has all been too much for some key members of the CAO board, which includes representatives of the Higher Education Authority and the various third-level colleges. The CAO board normally convenes only twice a year. But expect a meeting to be convened shortly as the inquest begins.

That call by Seán Cottrell (below) of the Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) for a ban on voluntary contributions in schools would surely affect his organisation. The IPPN is funded to the tune of €200 from each of the country's 3,000 primary schools. That's a cool €600,000. Or, if schools are as short of State funding as he suggests, €10 from each of the 60,000 children who enrolled in infants this year. Maybe the least said!

Got any education gossip? E-mail us, in confidence, at teacherspet@irish-times.ie