THE bustle and fuss of children heading back to school is today's story; spare a thought, then, for the pupils of one school in east Galway who have another tale to tell.
Over 100 of them will turn up at Scoil Bhride in New Inn, and in the excitement of the day all will seem well. After all, their school is larger than many others in the area, boasts four teachers, and is not threatened by falling numbers.
If it lacks some of the facilities of bigger schools it makes up for it in team spirit. The recently painted nameplate and carefully tended lawn point to a school that is looked after with pride by its staff and board of management.
But if you need extra help with your sums or your spelling in Scoil Bhride, don't hold your breath. The teachers and parents at the school have been campaigning for a remedial teacher since 1981, and all they have to show for it is a clutch of bland refusals and polite notes.
The latest example arrived last April, in a letter from the Department of Education to the local parish priest, Father Hubert Murray. It was a simple acknowledgement letter a kind of fill in the gaps form sent in response to this year's application. The response didn't even mention the word "remedial" and they have heard nothing from the Department since.
They have tried everything. They were told last year that if they grouped together with other schools to reach a combined enrolment of 300, then they would be entitled to a remedial teacher. They got together with schools in Brackloon and Cappatagle to reach the magic figure. No joy.
They tried their local TDs, Noel Treacy and Paul Connaghton. The politicians expressed concern but their representations had no effect.
The parents decided to go it alone and pay for a remedial teacher out of their own pockets. The Department told them they couldn't do that. Primary education is supposed to be "free" and it would be illegal for them to hire a remedial teacher.
Two years ago, the school was given the part time services of a resource teacher (who helps in a general way with all subjects), for three hours on Mondays and Tuesdays. Then one of the hours on Tuesdays was taken away, leaving the teacher barely enough time to hang up her coat before she was on the road again.
The principal, David McGann, says that at least 16 pupils in the school need remedial attention. He teaches fifth and sixth class together in a combined class of 32 pupils. With the best will in the world, he says, he just can't find the time to give enough attention to the half dozen or so in his own class who need extra help.
He is a soft spoken man but the bitterness comes through as he recalls high sounding aspirations "to cherish all the children of the nation equally" and wonders why a socialist Minister for Education can't give his pupils parity of esteem with their urban cousins,
To be fair to Ms Breathnach, her Department has made progress over the last three years, although if you, were writing a term report you'd be tempted to append the words "could try harder" to it.
A Department spokesman points out that an extra 241 remedial teachers have been allocated over the last three years. The percentage of primary school children who have access to remedial education rose from 77 per cent to 87 per cent between 1993 and 1995.
Of the 13 per cent who are left without remedial teachers, many - are in small rural schools in isolated parts of the west - arguably some of the places most in need of extra help. But some are in places like New Inn, which is half way between Ballinasloe and Athenry and can hardly be described as isolated.
The Department, nevertheless, deserves praise for what it has done over the past three years to increase the number of remedial teachers. But the spokesman concedes that it has no plans to allocate any extra ones this year.
The Department and the INTO were locked in negotiation over staffing numbers this weekend, so this picture may change. If it doesn't, however, it will mean the expansion of remedial services will be halted in its tracks. It would be an unusual decision to take in an election year.
In any case, all the percentage figures in the world will give cold comfort to the likes of Geraldine Dolan, who has four children at Scoil Bhride, including one boy - who is starting sixth class barely able to do simple addition. The mysteries of multiplication and division are as yet beyond him, although his mother gives him extra coaching in the evenings.
Unless her son can make significant strides this year in a busy class of 32 - to say the least, a difficult task - his future at second level looks anything but rosy.
"If I asked him to add nine and seven, he probably wouldn't be able to tell me," she says. He can read and write simple sentences, and has improved with the help of the resource teacher, but much more is needed.
"He can come home in the evening and take out his lessons from her, and he doesn't even want me to come near him because he's able to do them himself. He's independent.
"But he's sitting in the classroom for four other says in the week and I don't know what's going through his mind. I feel awful sorry for him because he can't grasp what he's hearing.
"I'm lucky because he never says he doesn't want to go to school. He's a happy child. But I think it's an awful waste that he's spending four days in the school (without extra help) . .. he's not bad enough for a special school, but he's not good enough for this school. He's in between. He needs resourced help the whole time. It's as simple as that.
THE continuing gaelscoileanna row has had its first victim - a planned gaelscoil in Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, will not now open this year.
The parents involved in the project did not expect to have enough pupils to qualify for official recognition this year. But they were prepared to go ahead on the basis that they would reach the necessary threshold - 20 pupils - by next September.
Most gaelscoileanna set up in recent years have followed that route and survived for one, two or even three years without any official help until they reach the required numbers. Up to now they have been able to combine enrolment numbers from two years; all that changed with Niamh Bhreathnach's clumsy move to change the rules just before the August bank holiday.
New gaelscoileanna now need to enrol 20 junior infants in one year, who have not gone to any other school, in order to qualify for recognition. In effect, this means that parents in towns like Ballinamore (population 1,000) will not be allowed to have a gaelscoil. The rules for ordinary schools are not as restrictive.
Leitrim is one of only four counties whose population continues to decline, according to the preliminary results of the 1996 census. Of five existing schools in and around Ballinamore, one has a healthy intake of 30 pupils this year while all the rest are in single figures.
A spokeswoman for the planned gaelscoil, Sharon Sweeney, says the parents have decided to defer opening the school for a year, even though they have seven "first timers" on the rolls - more than schools at Aughawillan and Drumreilly and the same number as the school at Fenagh.
They have 10 names down for the naionra, or pre school, and will spend the year fund raiding for Gaelscoil Bheal an Atha Mhoir, which she says will now open in September, 1997.
The controversy has caused a stir in the county, and is seen as a clear case of discrimination against Leitrim. If the Department thinks the Ballinamore gaelscoil will quietly fade away it is mistaken.
Ms Sweeney sums it up with a simple comparison. "What we want is a choice for our children and because we live in Leitrim we can't have that choice. If I was living in Dublin my kids would be going to a gaelscoil," she says.