An insider's guide to education

** UNLIKE MOST of his Cabinet colleagues, Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe can afford to relax about the forthcoming Cabinet reshuffle.

There are probably only two real possibilities and both represent good news for the minister.

There is continuing speculation that the Department of Education could be given an expanded role in training programmes.

And there is also some word that Batt could be in line for a new ministerial post which would oversee public service reform.

All of this is a reward for a minister who has been a bright star in Cabinet. He may have been a latecomer to ministerial office but these days no one doubts his ministerial credentials.

Among his Cabinet colleagues, Batt has earned his spurs for his resolution in taking on those awkward teacher unions. But he has also earned plaudits for his genial approach.

Batt is also one of the few ministers who has struck a cord with the public as a decent, hard-working guy – and one who doesn’t take himself too seriously.

The question now is what Batt himself wants to do.

His decision to tackle the sensitive issue of grade inflation in the exams underlines his potential as an education minister who relishes a challenge – and one who could achieve real change.

There is much to be done on reform of the Leaving Cert, third-level funding, school accountability, information technology and the rest.

But will he remain in education?

** THE NEW chief inspector of the Department, Dr Harold Hislop, will have a key role in assessing educational standards, as the pressure builds from industry to raise standards.

Hislop was appointed recently to replace Eamonn Stack who has retired.

The straight-talking Hislop taught in Whitechurch National School in Rathfarnham, Dublin and was later appointed principal there. He was also a lecturer in education at TCD. And he played a key role in the revised primary school curriculum.

** THE CUTBACK frenzy continues in education. In the latest bizarre move, the two posts of transition year co-ordinator and Leaving Cert Applied (LCA) co-ordinator are to be merged.

The TUI’s Peter McMenamin is surely right when he says the removal of the post of national co-ordinator for the LCA will butcher a hugely successful programme which benefits 8,000 high risk students.

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