Change in education comes dripping slow

It is to be hoped that the dust never gets to settle on the junior cycle reforms unveiled by Ruairi Quinn on Thursday.

By going a step beyond proposals made to him almost a year ago on how to make the first three years of second level more about learning and less about an exam, the education minister has earned wide welcome but also ruffled union feathers.

But with some clever political positioning, he has also removed many of the barriers they identified to the bones of the reforms, on which he has now placed the meat, albeit 11 months later.