AN INSIDER'S GUIDE TO EDUCATION
• In a blaze of publicity, Fianna Fáil will launch its pre-election document on education shortly - but don't expect any extravagant new promises.
What we will be getting is more detail on those 4,000 new primary teachers and the doubling of the capitation grant for primary pupils.
The main focus of the Fianna Fáil campaign on education will be to pick holes in Fine Gael's package in this key area and divert attention from those embarrassing broken promises on class size.
But is Fine Gael well placed to make the most of the Government's discomfort?
Fine Gael is basing its campaign on its new €100 million schools excellence fund, which will cover class size and a dizzying range of other problems.
But the projected increases in population mean that the €100 million might be only enough to keep class sizes close to their current level. By most estimates, some 2,000 extra teachers will be needed by 2011 - just to keep pace with demographic demands.
There is also complex stuff in the Fine Gael document which would see schools competing for extra teaching posts.
So far, the Fine Gael proposals have drawn a cool response from across the education sector. Certainly, few at the recent INTO conference seemed to understand or appreciate the detail of the Fine Gael plan.
Might the party not be better off changing tack - and spelling out in precise terms its plans on class size?
• Athlone's Institute of Technology is regarded as one of the most progressive in the State.
Now comes news that Athlone is launching a BA in applied addiction studies - a degree course with great relevance for today's Irish society.
The course will be launched early next month by soccer star Paul McGrath (right) who wrote so movingly of his challenges with alcohol in Back from the Brink.
• Some good and bad news. All of the seven universities have been successful in their bid for funding under the next PRTLI cycle - the €200 million Programme for Research Funding in Third-Level Institutions. But the story is a mixed one for the institutes of technology (ITs).
Congratulations are due to those whose projects have been approved including the IT Tallaght, DIT, Waterford IT, Cork IT, the National College for Art and Design and the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
But it's bad news for eight other ITs and the Milltown Institute as their bids failed to make the grade.
Got any education gossip? E-mail us, in confidence at teacherspet@irish-times.ie
