Diarmaid Ferriter: What ever happened to free education in Ireland?

In recent years the chorus decrying back to school costs has grown louder. With much justification, a range of charities, parents’ groups and the Irish League of Credit Unions have highlighted not just the multiple overt and hidden costs but the invidious practice of pressurising parents to pay a substantial contribution to the school even though it is supposed to be voluntary.

It has frequently been highlighted that back to school costs, not including the “voluntary” payment, average €340 for sending one child to a non fee-paying primary school in Ireland and €775 for a secondary school, and that is before the cost of extra-curricular activities are factored in. It is also widely recognised that the Department of Social Protection’s back to school clothing and footwear allowances – worth between €125 (for a child up to the age of 11) and €250 for older children – are woefully inadequate.

Barnardo’s children’s charity has been particularly vocal on this issue; its costs survey this year involved 2,200 parents and the conclusion was “The majority of parents have to either take out a loan, delay payment of other bills or take money out of savings to cover school costs. This experience is magnified for those families who struggle financially or have additional challenges”. It found 11 per cent of primary school parents and 21 per cent of secondary school parents are forced to borrow money to cover school costs.

Free education

This all raises an obvious question: what happened to free education in Ireland? A book published this year under the title Education for All? The legacy of free post-primary education in Ireland, edited by Education professor Judith Harford, explores the essence of this theme. Arising out of reflections on the 50th anniversary of the introduction of free secondary education in Ireland by Fianna Fáil Minister for Education Donogh O’Malley, it takes the long view. There is little doubting the revolution in educational access prompted by O’Malley’s initiative and its associated free school transport scheme. It was one of the most significant developments in the history of this State; a result of what historian Joe Lee characterised as the “conjunction of idealism, dedication and political commitment of a relatively small number of exceptional individuals in crucial political and administrative positions”.

Diarmaid Ferriter: Irish Catholicism is rooted in class prejudice

---

Diarmaid Ferriter: ‘Cultural Catholic’ is a euphemism for lazy hypocrite

---

Diarmaid Ferriter: An election will be good for the integrity of the presidency

---

Diarmaid Ferriter: Truth of what lies beneath Tuam home must be uncovered

---

But the legacy of that era of positivism has been steadily tarnished over the decades, underlined by the attention Harford’s book devotes to economic and class privilege in Irish education. Children from poorer households cannot participate on equal terms with others within the Irish education system. Public schools in Ireland are inadequately funded leading to the request (more often a demand, according to parents’ groups) for voluntary contributions, while Ireland has a long established “educational market” with middle and upper classes free to migrate to private service provision to make up for deficits in the public system. The money spent on grinds is an obvious example, but there are others, including summer camps, language travel and educationally relevant extra-curricular activities. And the inequality continues beyond school; 50 per cent of students from Ireland’s most affluent areas study at the most elite universities in Ireland, four times the rate of those from disadvantaged areas.

Barnardos has argued that investing an extra €103.2 million annually could make free primary school education a reality for all children, which could be phased in over a three-year period beginning with investing €20 million to provide free school books for all. A commitment to investing €126.9 million annually could make secondary education free for all children, once free primary education has been achieved. These are not remotely extravagant sums, given the difference such investment could make.

Inequalities

Why is there such a reluctance to grasp this nettle? Part of the problem, it appears to me, is that the Fine Gael concept of “opportunity” does not meaningfully challenge entrenched class inequalities. When he was elected leader of Fine Gael, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar memorably spoke of what his elevation meant about a changed Ireland; his election as the gay son of an immigrant meant, “Every proud parent in Ireland can dream big dreams for their children. Every boy and girl can know that there is no limit to their ambition to their possibilities, if they’re given the opportunity”. Likewise, in his fine speech when Pope Francis visited last week, Varadkar sought to emphasise a changed, more progressive and diverse Ireland in contrast to an era when there were “cries for help that went unheard”.

Varadkar’s words in recent times have been the proud and polished utterances of a young Taoiseach basking in the afterglow of referenda results and his own career trajectory that suggest, without doubt, increased tolerance and social liberalism. But given the extent of social, educational inequality and the shameful scale of homelessness in wealthy contemporary Ireland he and his government need to champion a much more aggressive and targeted state intervention to give real meaning to promises of “opportunity”.