TP's bold prediction that Mary Hanafin is odds-on to be our next Minister for Education has caused ripples in Leinster House.
The word is that Brian Lenihan, the ambitious legal eagle - and supremely confident young fogey - is also in the frame. With whizkids like Lenihan and Hanafin tipped, there should be interesting times ahead at Marlborough Street.
But do I hear any money on Dermot Ahern, the low-profile social affairs minister?
TP is crestfallen to hear that Darren McCallig, one of the great spindoctors of Irish education, is leaving the Union of Students in Ireland (USI).
McCallig, along with the likes of Colm Jordan and current president Richard Hammond, is responsible for increasing the profile and status of USI in the education sector.
A law graduate from NUI Galway, McCallig, the union's press officer, is heading to the more celestial environment of St Patrick's Cathedral, where he takes up the post of press and administrative officer from October 8th.
USI's loss is the cathedral's gain. TP feels we will be hearing from this young man again. In the meantime, the task of keeping USI the well-oiled lobbying machine it currently is, falls to the likes of Hammond and Jordan - and, of course, McCallig's successor, who will be named in the coming weeks.
The case of the Blessington Two - in which Tom Higgins has been refusing to send his two kids to a primary school in Blessington, Co Wicklow, because they are required to learn Irish - continues to gain considerable attention.
Higgins has been a very persuasive advocate of his own case. TP wishes his own parents had been as flexible when it came to studying Peig!
However, there is one issue which still worries me. Tom Higgins is the man who brought you Irish Psychics Live, the phone line that promises to tell you your future. How come he never saw this trouble brewing?
He may be relatively new to the Department, but we hear that the new assistant secretary in Education, Paul Kelly, is already gaining rave reviews.
Kelly, who beat off a host of internal candidates for the post, used to handle the army deafness row in the Department of Defence. Now, he only has to deal with the teaching unions!
As boss of industrial relations, he has taken charge of the delicate talks on payment for teacher supervision. Kelly is bright, energetic and ambitious. Watch this space.
You can e-mail Teacher's Pet in confidence at teacherspet@irish-times.ie
