AN INITIATIVE to train drama teachers for post-primary schools was launched this month by the Department of Education, the ASTI and the Abbey Theatre. According to the ASTI, 15 teachers will be ready to go out and pass on their skills to other teachers on completion of the course.

"The participants were selected on the basis that they would be prepared to train others," says Moira Leydon, in-service co-ordinator at the ASTI. "They will be trained by Christmas and available after that."

The initiative, she says, represents a breakthrough in education terms because the importance of drama is being recognised for the first time. "It's also giving teachers an opportunity to develop their skills and also to experiment with teaching methodology." The project is not confined to members of the ASTI.

According to John White, the assistant general secretary "there has been a real danger that the arts could be marginalised or become extinct in schools, this initiative should go some way towards negating such fears".