Dear Editor, First may I compliment Anne Byrne for profiling the PLC sector in your E&L supplement. This section of the educational system receives very little media coverage and as a PLC student I found the fact that it was touched upon particularly pleasing.

Unfortunately, I found the information in Ms Byrne's article selective. While the positive aspects of such a course were covered, the negatives, such as the absence of a maintenance grant for PLC students, were only fleetingly referred to.

The reality of being a student within the PLC sector is far from the version of reality presented in Ms Byrne's article. PLC students are grossly mishandled and mistreated by the Department of Education.

There are many similarities between a university student and a PLC student as both warrant a similar level of protection and funding.

I completed my Leaving Certificate three years ago. I have been studying at Post Leaving Cert level for two years and I object to being categorised as a secondary level student. Many students see their PLC qualifications as a third level award and other use their qualifications as a bridge to future study. To equate students with secondary level is both insulting and it also flies in the face of its very definitions as Post Leaving Cert.

A student with financial difficulties is a student with financial difficulties, regardless of the institution he studies in. The Department of Education has deemed some students more worthy of assistance, while other students with similar problems are left to fend for themselves. This is academic selectiveness and further evidence of the Department perpetuating its policy of double standards. Yours Liberties College, Student Council PRO, DUBLIN 8.