If the Minister for Education has any real interest in redressing the balance in a system where the ability to pay takes precedence over the ability to learn, he should do so immediately, writes Colm Jordan
Figures revealed in The Irish Times last week show in stark black and white that what matters in Irish education in 2002 is the ability to pay, not the ability to learn.
The Department of Education and Science has long denied that education has been divided into a two-tier system in the Republic. However, there is now so much evidence to the contrary that the facts cannot be refuted. It is unsettling yet somehow fitting that only journalistic endeavour and the Freedom of Information Act has prompted the results.
The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has always advocated that instead of the primary, secondary and tertiary education sectors competing for the same funds, more capital should be allocated to each individual sector. A "robbing Peter to pay Paul" scenario should not be tolerated. In essence, different education sectors should not be competing for a bigger slice of the cake - they should be receiving a larger cake.
With this in mind, I can safely predict that some observers will suggest the re-introduction of third-level fees as a way of boosting coffers for further second-level development. The Minister, Mr Dempsey, has flirted with the idea in recent interviews. Some would even argue that such fees should never have been abolished. However, that would have been catastrophic. If fees had not been abolished, thousands of students who attended college in the last 10 years would instead have entered the jobs market without further qualifications immediately after secondary school during our economic boom.
With foreign companies down-sizing or pulling out of Irish towns with alarming regularity over the last two years, there would have been untold strain on our economy today with regard to social welfare and, by extension, taxation.
Education has been the key factor in our economic development and it would be detrimental to dissuade more students from taking the step from second to third-level education.
By this same logic, would the same observers also agree that there should a reintroduction of means-tested fees for State second-level education?
This argument is no more absurd than that of third-level fees. Doing either would be a huge step backwards. The facts need examining. While nobody can blame parents for wanting the very best for their children, State-run secondary education should provide a standard which gives everybody an equal and excellent chance of fulfilling their potential. Yet Ireland's expenditure on second-level education still lags far behind all other EU countries, with the exception of Greece.
Our pupil/teacher ratio is higher today than 30 years ago, a staggering fact when one considers our recent economic growth.
Taxpayers' money was spent on the setting up of the Action Group on Access to Third-Level Education two years ago. The result is a 216-page publication with a snazzy cover and glossy pages.
It contains 78 recommendations to the Department of Education on increasing access for students who are mature, disadvantaged or who have disabilities.
Only a handful of these have been implemented. The chief recommendation for the creation of a national office for equity of access to higher education has not. More deceit, more broken promises. To provide a level playing field, the Government needs to provide a grant to those who need it and to assure that fees will not be reintroduced. The €274 stealth tax included in the college registration fee should also be abolished.
It is now clear that the Irish electorate was conned. In its manifesto, Fianna Fáil said: "We will ensure that the number of mature students in third-level expands significantly over the next five years and the number of disadvantaged students participating is doubled over the same period."
Mr Dempsey's main actions so far have been to increase college registration fees by 69 per cent and to slash €5 million from programmes aimed at attracting socio-economically disadvantaged school-leavers into third-level education.
USI met Mr Dempsey just days before the announcement of the slash in funding for access programmes. This plan was not mentioned, but he reiterated his commitment to increasing access to colleges for disadvantaged students.
Such deceit and erratic actions were a common feature of his predecessor, Dr Michael Woods's, term in office, and Mr Dempsey has taken up the gauntlet with gusto.
The Department of Education and Science's mission statement is "to provide high-quality education, which will enable individuals to achieve their full potential and to participate fully as members of society, and contribute to Ireland's social, cultural and economic development."
One could be forgiven for believing that Mr Dempsey has gone out of his way to do the complete opposite since he took up the brief. Did he really take this position to try to increase access for the disadvantaged, or is he merely a puppet in Mr McCreevy's cutback show? The majority of students in the process of starting or returning to college at the beginning of this academic year would take the latter view as they struggle to make ends meet or, in some cases, contemplate dropping out of college altogether.
What The Irish Times figures did last week was drag what has been common knowledge for years kicking and screaming into the public spotlight. There can be no more excuses. The Department has for years propagated what was memorably termed by Fintan O'Toole as "social apartheid". If Mr Dempsey has any genuine interest in redressing the balance, he needs to show it immediately.
Education is a right, not a privilege. Yet a student from Ballyfermot is over 10 times less likely to attend college than one from Foxrock, according to Higher Education Authority statistics. Explain that, Minister Dempsey.
Colm Jordan is president of USI