THE concept of school councils, which give a voice to students, is undoubtedly a good one but practical difficulties can often get in the way of real progress.

Cork teacher, Aileen O'Gorman, decided to tackle the problems by meeting representatives of other school councils and pooling ideas.

O'Gorman, who is teacher co-ordinator of the school council in Presentation Secondary School, Ballyphehane, Cork, says that the main difficulty her school encountered was the fact that a new council is appointed each year so it takes a fair amount of time to get the council up and running.

She says that the first thorny issue most schools encounter is appointment to the council. Who should be represented and how should these representatives be chosen?

In Presentation Secondary School, all class prefects are entitled to a place on the council and the senior prefects form an executive body. Junior prefects are chosen by teachers but senior prefects are elected by the class.

O'Gorman says that choosing a head pupil often causes the most difficulty. The school tried elections but found that the most popular candidate was rarely the most responsible. Then, it was decided to appoint a head pupil but this was very unpopular with the pupils so, this year, a new system is in place. Pupils elect a number of candidates to a short list and the teachers then make the final selection. O'Gorman is hopeful this will prove the optimum solution.

Having elected or appointed a student council, what next, she asks?

Some schools involve students in various projects so that they might help out with a task, such as sorting out litter problems or organising a hall for exams, but should they actually have a say in the decision making process?

O'Gorman sent out a questionnaire to local schools and identified six schools with school councils in place. She organised a meeting with representatives of these councils last April and has since followed this up by circularising all Cork schools and organising a larger seminar in October which was attended by students representatives and teacher co-ordinators from 15 Cork schools. She was supported in her endeavours by the Cork Teachers' Centre.

The feeling from the October seminar was that student councils would like to develop their role and meet with parent committees, the board of management and staff, says O'Gorman.

They would like a higher profile in schools and a more important role. "All of the research that characterises effective schools shows that giving students more responsibilities and a voice means that they will have increased ownership of the school and will be much more responsive," she says.

There was lively participation from the floor at the seminar, reports O'Gorman, with some pupils under the impression that if a school council passed a particular issue then it should automatically be granted by the school authorities.

For instance, one school council wanted a smoking room for senior pupils. However the health implications made this a much wider issue. In another school, prefects had the power to give detention. This was greeted with incredulity and anger by most participants.

Aspirations aside, the mechanics of running a school council can often hold up its functioning. The seminar included a talk on the role of the chairperson and secretary, how to take minutes and so on. This is an area that could be explored in more detail at further meetings. she says.

Each of the 15 schools that attended the seminar will now write up the current practice in its own school and send it to O'Gorman, who will compile the information, in an effort to come to a consensus view.