An insider's guide to education
What are we to make of Noel Dempsey's "Your Education System" (YES) Roadshow?
The Minister for Education plans 16 public meetings to help frame a new vision of education. The intention is to ensure that the agenda is not set by those the Department calls the "usual suspects".
So what happened at the first YES meeting at the Corrib Great Southern in Galway earlier this month?
About 75 per cent of those present were drawn from the ranks of the usual suspects i.e. head honchos from the teacher unions, members of the teaching unions and parent groups.
The turnout of about 300 on a decidedly inclement evening may sound good, but it only tells part of the story. Despite the best efforts of Liveline star Joe Duffy, it was hard to escape the feeling that the ordinary Joe (pardon the pun) did not get a look-in.
In fairness, Dempsey can hardly be blamed for this. Most parents focus, naturally enough, on their own children's education. And it is difficult to engage people when talking about the future.
But the Department could do more to widen the debate. It seems ludicrous that the website to accompany the roadshow does not feature an interactive messageboard. This, at least, would help to stimulate some debate - and perhaps may also justify the huge expense involved in mounting the whole exercise. Every school in the State has been circulated with bumph about the project, which is overseen by a Dublin public relations firm.
What will come out of the whole exercise? With more than a dozen meetings still due, it is too early to say. But more will have to be done to ensure that the debate is not dominated by the usual voices.
There was understandable relief last week among teachers at news that they will be receiving their benchmarking payments next month.
But apparently, there were some red faces when it was realised that the calendar everyone had been working off for 2008/2009 related to the wrong year. Once the Department realised the error, it was no surprise to see it sign off on a four-year agreement, despite its previous stubborn insistence on a five-year deal.
Some giants of the education landscape are due to retire in the next year, including Department of Education secretary general John Dennehy and Higher Education Authority (HEA) boss Don Thornhill.
Another senior figure set to retire is John McAvoy, the general manager of the Central Applications Office in Galway. McAvoy may be publicity-shy, but his professionalism is widely admired throughout the education sector. The CAO processes a huge volume of material every year. But under McAvoy's command, it has been a model of efficiency.
Those talks on a standardised school year yielded a decent result for INTO boss John Carr. He managed to secure what is known as a "flexible standardised year" for primary teachers. End result? His members can organise their holidays in much the same way as they always did.
