An insider's guide to education: These are crucial weeks for education minister Mary Hanafin - just back from the St Patrick's Day celebrations in Philadelphia and New York.

Hanafin, who has been so successful in smoothing troubled waters, should get a warm reception at next week's teachers' conferences.

But the teacher unions will want more than honeyed words on disadvantage, class size and a range of other issues. They want concrete evidence that progress is being made. In simple terms, they want to know if Hanafin has succeeded in securing more money for education from Minister for FinanceBrian Cowen.

In the next few weeks, Hanafin will want to demonstrate that she is no pushover at the Cabinet table - and not just someone who is good on radio and TV.

Already, some jealous types in Leinster House like to compare Mary Hanafin to other (female ) ministers who never quite achieved their political ambitions. Be fair, chaps. But there is everything to suggest that Hanafin is made of stronger stuff.

Much dismay out in Belfield about the latest CAO figures, which show a decline of more than 4 per cent in the number of students opting for UCD as their first preference. The college was expecting something of a bounce in the figures this year after the launch of the much-admired Horizons modular programme, which gives students the freedom to frame their own degree course.

Now the recriminations are underway out in the windy campus - not least because the marketing campaign for Horizons cost a fortune.

First in the firing line? You guessed it, those hard-working career teachers. Some in UCD say teachers should have been more active in spreading the good news to students.

Speaking of those CAO figures. Hats off to NUI Maynooth, which registered a spectacular rise of more than 16 per cent in the number of students who made the college their first option.

The president, John Hughes, is clearly building on the outstanding legacy left by his predecessor, Séamus Smyth. But the energetic assistant registrar, John McGinnity, who travelled across Dublin proselytising about Maynooth, also deserves huge credit.

The mystery figures behind the new ratemyteachers.ie website must be delighted with all the publicity they have received since those helpful people in the Teachers' Union of Ireland waded in last week. The TUI expressed outrage at the website and warned of its dangers.

Result? An avalanche of e-mails to the site from virtually every kid with internet access. Only nine schools had been "rated" before the publicity blitz. But the work of hundreds of teachers in over 200 schools is now "ranked".

Got any education gossip? E-mail us, in confidence, at teacherspet@irish-times.ie