An insider's guide to education

Has a certain frisson developed in the once-cosy relationship between Mary Hanafin and the INTO in this critical pre-election period?

The bitter public exchanges over that Department of Education report on teacher education have unsettled the relationship between Hanafin and INTO boss John Carr.

The INTO accused Hanafin of leaking the report to divert attention from their campaign on class size. Hanafin is furious about this allegation, which she regards as both untrue and unfair.

The stakes in this battle could scarcely be higher for both sides. Carr has staked much of his reputation on the class size issue. But Hanafin is determined to kill it off in the run-up to the election.

This will not be easy. The INTO regional meetings on the issue have been drawing impressive levels of support from parents and teachers. Crucially, the INTO charge that the Government failed to meet its commitments on the issue is beginning to stick with the public.

The controversy also serves as a reminder of how the INTO - like the GAA and the IFA - is a genuinely national organisation whose reach extends into every town and village in the State. The union has the capacity - and the public relations savvy - to damage the Government on the class size issue.

One thing is clear - the issue is not going away. Expect it to resurface in the white heat of the election campaign.

Hanafin may have done relatively well in securing more funds for this year but attention is beginning to shift to the wider question - why does Irish education funding languish behind the rest of the developed world in so many key areas?

In an impressive presentation last week, Ferdia Kelly and Ciarán Flynn from the main school management bodies (the JMB and the ACSS) underlined how even the €250 million planned for school computers will only scratch the surface.

•Last week we lamented the failure of Irish universities to honour Fr Michael Kelly, the leading anti-Aids campaigner. Apologies are due to UCD and its president, Hugh Brady, who had the wit and wisdom to award a honorary doctorate in law to this inspiring figure last year.

•Bill Harris, the former head of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), has been appointed as an adjunct professor in DCU. Harris has a reputation for straight talking and sharp observation. And in a question-and-answer session he did not disappoint.

Expressing concern about the management of the third-level sector the US academic said: "I am concerned about the structure of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) in terms of limiting these universities to achieve what they really can achieve. . . . I think the universities have advanced so much and Irish industry has advanced so much in the last five years so we owe them a better, more contemporary model of support."

•The leaking of those CAO figures due on Thursday has certainly concentrated minds in the third- level colleges, where the scramble for students is so intense.

All credit to NUI Maynooth and indeed to DCU where first preference applications are up by 18 and 11 per cent respectively.

Credit also to some of the institutes of technology in the west including Galway -Mayo IT, where applications are up and IT Sligo which has taken over 500 students into various science-related programmes in the past two years.

The CAO figures are adding to a certain tension around the third-level sector as colleges apply for research funds under the so-called PRTLI before the deadline later this month.

E-mail us, in confidence, at teacherspet@irish-times.ie