An insider’s guide to education

- Only months after the Green Party appeared to kill off the issue, the return of student tuition charges is back on the agenda.

Jim Browne, the president of NUI Galway, has won plaudits from his peers for telling it straight. Without a sustainable funding mechanism, the higher education system in this country faces a slow but steady decline in standards, he said recently.

That is also the view of several cabinet heavyweights – and not just Batt O’Keeffe and Noel Dempsey.

It all prompts the question – are some people in the Green Party regretting that October deal on the revised Programme for Government which swept the O’Keeffe plan for student loans off the agenda? The Green Party’s education spokesman Paul Gogarty was the key player in pushing the veto on fees. At the time, the Greens were under pressure from young members on the issue; they threatened to block progress on Nama unless the threat of fees was removed.

But the pressure from Browne and the other presidents is beginning to tell. There is an increasing acknowledgement at senior Government level that a properly funded higher education system is necessary as part of the national effort to revive the economy.

This pressure to revive the O’Keeffe proposals will intensify when the forthcoming report of the strategy group on higher education backs tuition charges. This will leave the Greens even more isolated on the issue in Government. And under more pressure to back off.

- Who will succeed John White as general secretary of the ASTI? The early favourite is assistant general secretary, Pat King. A former teacher, King is widely known for his work with members. Deputy general secretary, Diarmuid de Paor, is also being tipped.

But don’t rule out the intervention of some high profile candidates, both internal and external!

An ASTI selection committee has been established and a public advertisement will appear shortly. But the successful candidate will still have to be ratified by the ASTI executive. The whole process should be completed by June.

- Speaking about fees, is it time we invoiced students each year?

Seán Rowland, founder of Hibernia College, says the full economic cost of each degree course should be made known to every student in an annual invoice, distributed on registration.

While there would still be no fee payment, the invoice would help students realise that the taxpayer is funding their education. Too many students, he says, glide through college in Ireland without ever recognising the real cost of their education.

Incidentally, Hibernia now graduates more primary-school teachers each year than any other programme in the State with its higher diploma in arts in primary education.

Dr Don Thornhill, chairman of the National Competitiveness Council, has joined the Hibernia board as chairman.

- As role models, teachers can play a key part in the battle to make our kids more active. But has anyone told the Department of Education?

Teachers have been told to wait until next December if they want to buy a bike and take part in the Cycle to Work scheme. Apparently, applications are only processed every December!

So far, only 1,000 teachers from a 50,000-strong teaching workforce have applied to buy bikes under the scheme, well below target.

The Irish Environmental Network says an ideal opportunity for teachers to lead by example is being lost.

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