Sir, - I have noted that all of our political parties in the run up to a general election have been doing a lot of talking on issues such as equality and unemployment, for example, and have focused on the need for education and training. Have any of the parties given any more consideration to the plight of the people who are trying to further their education without the financial support of our education and grants system?
To date evening degree students in our universities have been ignored in the "free fees" system for reasons which I cannot explain.
Many of the students who come to college in the evening do so for the very reasons the government approve of, notably the need to attain the skills that we are told the "celtic tiger" needs. Evening students follow the exact same degree courses as day students. They are not part time students: they simply attend lectures at a different time of the day. Is this the only reason they are being denied free fees?
Those who are unemployed find it very hard to pay the fees for the duration of their courses and often they have to drop out because of financial difficulties. If you do not have a job how can you avail of tax relief on fees? So much for the notion of giving unemployed people an equal chance of higher education.
Most of those evening students who are employed are in the low pay sector, another group which the government and opposition parties purport to support. Tax relief on fees still means that evening students have to pay, on average, £1,000 per year for courses which are provided free to every other third level student. They do not resent the fact that day students do not have to pay fees, they merely want to be treated equally.
It is ironic that evening students pay, through taxes, into a system that provides free fees and, yet, are then told in turn that they have no right to avail of these free fees. We are often told of the importance of second chance education; the fact remains that for many evening students, this is their first chance.
Will our future government finally rectify the gross inequality between full time day students and full time evening students? Our politicians talk frequently of equality in education. Now is the time for them to put their money where their mouths are and grant the much overdue extension of the free fees programme to evening students. Yours, etc.
Student's Union,
University College, Dublin.
Belfield,
Dublin 4.