Madam, - Is there an implication in the debate over the return of third-level fees that those who have benefited from " free" fees at third level in the past have done so on the backs of the taxpayer? Has the State had no benefit from these graduates?
Any economy will benefit from a well-educated population. Is the State not the beneficiary of the taxes these graduates are now paying from the employment they hold? Perhaps a tax levy on the wages of graduates once they are employed would be more appropriate than asking students to take out loans - which may ultimately only benefit the banks - when they start college.
Third-level education is a right to which all citizens of the State should have access. There is little reason to believe that any form of means-testing will be fair. Therefore in re-introducing third-level fees there would be a serious danger that those families on the margin of any means test would be unable to send their children to third level. This debate should concentrate on the inequality of access to third-level education caused by inadequate funding of primary and second-level schools in disadvantaged areas.
One could argue that the CAO system provides for an equitable and objective method of admission to third-level institutes and that therefore students who merit places on the basis of academic ability are rewarded. But just as the school league tables purport to evaluate schools on the basis of exam results while failing to incorporate all the elements of inequality that are inherent in our educational system, the CAO cannot differentiate between the student who has repeated the Leaving Cert in a grind school, availed of private tuition and had been supported and encouraged by their family from the student who has attended school in a deprived area, where neither the school or the parents can provide this type of support.
If the Government's objective is to increase access to third level for pupils from disadvantaged areas, it must give proper financial support to these schools to allow them nurture their pupils in the manner in which pupils from wealthier backgrounds are nurtured. Only then can access to third-level be considered truly equitable. - Yours, etc.,
NOELEEN BOYLAN, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Galway.