Sir, – I am not particularly exercised about the debate on private schools, having neither attended one, nor having any desire to send my children to same.
It seems really to come down to whether the taxpayer should fund what is obviously an advantageous situation for a small minority of people who are generally more affluent than others, but I do acknowledge that the taxpayer would fund some sort of education for these students in any case.
However, what struck me was that, while letters flew back and forth on the issue, the outcome of the inequality of opportunity in our education system was highlighted by a separate report, which quoted the director of the National Adult Literacy Agency, Inez Bailey, as saying that 50 per cent of under-25s with low-level qualifications were now unemployed in Ireland (Home News, September 24th). She added that adults with basic literacy or numeracy problems were three times more likely to be unemployed in Ireland than in other industrialised countries.
Those are truly shocking statistics. It seems evident that, whether because of elitism or blind indifference, more and more of our citizens are being left behind. So much for investing in our future. – Yours, etc,