An insider's guide to education: Caoimhe Máirtín, the former president of Coláiste Mhuire in Marino, must now be the best known educationalist in the State - after a week in which she was regularly name-checked by Charlie Bird.
It has been a remarkable episode thanks to a stunning media campaign run by Máirtín's supporters. In its own way, the blizzard of leaks from inside the Marino bunker underline the former president's high reputation. The staff had huge respect - many were prepared to leak information. Thanks to "Whistleblower".
The Marino affair was an accident waiting to happen. There are scores of other educational establishments that receive State funding but are controlled by religious or private groups. Not all of them have the kind of transparency - in management or financial matters - that we expect.
Thus far, the Department of Education has emerged well from the fracas.
Mary Hanafin acted swiftly and decisively, establishing an independent inquiry less than an hour after arriving back in Dublin after a trip to Poland.
It is clear senior department figures such as former secretary general John Dennehy, chief inspector Eamonn Stack and assistant secretary Paul Kelly did as much as they could, given that the management at Marino was an internal matter - and, critically, that Caoimhe Máirtín made no allegation of financial impropriety in meetings with officials last year. The department also insured the high quality of teacher education on the campus was unaffected.
The annual conference of the Irish Vocational Education Association (IVEA) got lost in the media frenzy about Marino. The good news is that this was a highly successful conference run by the IVEA's impressive general secretary, former radio station executive Michael Moriarty.
Who was that face in the crowd at the Rod Stewart concert? Step forward, John Carr, the hard-working - and hard-rocking - general secretary of the INTO.
What is it about the Action Project for Junior Cert Civics or CSPE that brings teachers out in a rash? Here is a subject designed to spark an interest among young people in politics, citizenship and the rest. Interesting and worthy stuff, you might think. So why are the questions in the Action Project, prepared by the kids, so confusing and repetitious? Why not just ask the kids to write an essay on what they have done - instead of confusing matters by asking about tasks and skills. This column has yet to meet a teacher who is happy with the format. Any chance of a change?
Got any education gossip? E-mail us, in confidence, at teacherspet@irish-times.ie
