The Government, policy makers and educationalists, will welcome the latest report from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) on college-entry trends. The report, by UCD's Professor Patrick Clancy, notes the significant progress of recent years in the area of college access and provides a wealth of statistical information that will inform decision making at national and local level.
The report, A Fourth National Survey of Access to Higher Education, is part of a series and placed alongside three earlier reports by Professor Clancy and others, we now have a comprehensive overview of how the education system is performing in terms of access and fairness. Sadly, the evidence points to stark inequalities of the most basic kind.
As reported in today's editions, the report includes a breakdown of Dublin college entry statistics by postal district. This illustrates the gap between those who are served well by the current system and those who are losing out. In some areas, particularly in the north and west of Dublin, there are participation rates of less than 10 per cent. This contrasts with more affluent south Dublin suburbs where participation rates sometimes exceed 70 per cent.
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Outside Dublin, the picture is equally uneven. While the west of Ireland appears to be doing well, Donegal - with a participation rate of 35 per cent - is lagging behind most of the State and many midlands counties also appear to be struggling.
But what is more worrying is that in some areas, such as the north and west of Dublin, trends have worsened since Professor Clancy last did a similar exercise in 1992. Back then, more than 20 per cent of teenagers in the Finglas/Ballymun area reached third level, but this has now slipped back to 14 per cent.
As the chairman of the HEA, Dr Don Thornhill, has pointed out, the way forward is to reach out to people who normally would not be interested in getting a third-level qualification. However, he says colleges need to be more flexible in the way courses are provided to make them attractive and relevant to disadvantaged and mature learners. "More of the same will not be enough", he says.
The way to improve these figures is for greater targeted investment in education. With health getting the lion's share of political and media attention at present, Dr Thornhill and others have warned that education should not become sidelined.
In fact, investing in schools and our third-level institutions has become more important than ever before. This is because economies around the world are coming to rely increasingly on knowledge-based industries, which depend on bright articulate graduates. We should not lose sight of this.