Sir, – In looking at local variations in the proportion of third-level students who get maintenance grants, your education correspondent Joe Humphrieeys (August 18th) attributes a lot of significance to the way in which means testing for grants favours farmers and the self-employed, and therefore areas such as Longford.
In particular he focuses on the low proportion of grant holders from the Dublin population, compared with rural areas. However he overlooks the crucial role of very low participation by working class Dubliners.
For example, in 2013 higher education participation rates in Dublin 1, 10 and 17 were less than half the national average. Such low participation in areas dominated by socio-economic groups who would have a relatively high probability of qualifying for a grant if only they got into college, is surely at the heart of the problem.
Do something positive to improve the participation by young working class Dubliners and those regional grant inequalities will melt away.
– Yours, etc,
JOHN SHEEHAN
Dublin 14.