Emer Ní Chuágáin/President of the Union of Secondary School Students: Grinds are really normal practice by now. It's very common for students to get extra help outside school and it's more readily accepted by everyone involved in education.

We did a survey of students this time last year with the Farmers' Journal and in one class, 14 out of the 20 students were getting help with at least one subject.

There are a lot of factors that people don't really think about. I'm from Clondalkin and a lot of students living around my area have part-time jobs in order to pay for grinds.

Students have school, jobs, grinds and any extra-curricular activities that they do. How many hours can you work? There's a lot of pressure.

People aren't being offered enough in their regular education. Often this isn't the fault of the teacher. The way the course is laid out means that students don't get the help they need because there are 30 other people in the class. Class size is one of the biggest problems in education at the moment.

That's the main advantage of these grinds. You can get the one-to-one attention that you need.

That said, there is also the problem that some teachers genuinely can't teach.

There could be lots of reasons for that, but the students lose out if that's the case. We shouldn't have to pay if a teacher is tired of their job.

The problems with the system mean that if you can't afford grinds, you don't have the same opportunities as your peers. In an education system that's supposedly equal, it's not fair that people who can't afford the extra tuition are missing out.

It's awful to think that somebody may lose out because their parents can't afford grinds. That's the way things are going.

I really think that the only way to get around this is to address the imbalance in schools by providing the extra tuition as part of day-to-day education.

The Department of Education has a responsibility to ensure that students have equal opportunities and at the moment, there are people at a big disadvantage.

Like everything else, it all boils down to money.