The cost of private schools

Sir, – The argument that parents are taxpayers and deserve the support of the State towards the private education of their children is fallacious. In the past few years, more than 90 per cent of the top 10 feeder schools to both Trinity and UCD, our highest-ranked universities by international measures, have been in the “fee-paying” category. These schools, comprising 1.3 per cent of the national total, accounted for 16 per cent of first-year entrants. This is State-sponsored elitism. – Yours, etc,

CLIONA HANNON,

Director, Trinity Access

Programmes,

Trinity College Dublin,

Dublin 2.