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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
T
HEY rarely have the first-class sec-
tion in short haul flights these days.
Yet, it does persist. There we are, all
apparently pretty much the same,
milling around stuffing oversized hand lug-
gage into overhead bins. Once airborne,
however, the curtain is pulled across. We
only get to hear the tinkle of cutlery and the
rattle of real glasses and plates. It seems a lot
to pay, however, for just that.
Private schools have much in common
with first-class flying. They cost a lot but they
offer a curtained space for the wealthy. They
are also fewer in number these days. There
are only fifty-five such schools in Ireland.
These private schools, on average, have a
discretionary spend of over € per pupil.
This is about seven times that of state-sector
schools. As a result they get to have the fancy
lecture theatres, the modern sports facilities,
and the best extra-curricular fun. This prob-
ably goes beyond the enviable chink of real
cutlery, but it’s the same idea.
The big difference is that the state pro-
vides no support for the wealthy to sit behind
that curtain on the plane. The state does sup-
port curtained communities in the form of
private schools, to the tune of nearly €
million each year.
We have a very unequal education sys-
tem. Your postcode appears to determine
your educational progress. Schools in more
prosperous areas, including private schools,
do better. The state should facilitate equal-
ity in education, as this is a key public good,
the engine of so many other opportunities.
Instead it subsidises private schools, thus
subsidising inequality.
The state does provide additional
resources to disadvantaged areas. However,
austerity has meant that these supports are
increasingly undermined. Even in the best
of times, investing € million of the pub-
lic’s money in sustaining privilege is a poor
investment. In times of austerity it is an
extraordinarily bad decision.
It would be a mistake to underestimate
the power of private education to defend
its interests. Colm McCarthy, the leader of
‘An Bord Snip’ could only bring himself to
recommend that the subvention to private
schools should be reduced to € million.
The lobby is increasingly evident as
the budget comes closer. This is a small
and concentrated minority within the edu-
cation sector. Most private schools are
located in south Dublin. But, this concen-
trated minority can call on those they have
already privileged to articulate their case or
to protect them.
The segregation involved in private
schools is bad for education and for society.
Diversity in a school stimulates creativity
and innovation. A diverse school prepares
its students to participate in the real world.
A homogeneous school stifles creativity and
makes for group thinking.
I spoke recently in a debate in Gonzaga,
a private south-Dublin school, to the motion
that the state should not fund private schools.
The motion was soundly beaten with only
four brave souls, among the assembled
pupils, past pupils, parents and teachers
present, voting for it. What was remarka-
ble was the orientation of sixth year pupils
who voted en masse against the proposition.
Group thinking appeared to be already oper-
ational, in defence of privilege.
The curtained community that opts
for private schools knows what it is about.
The fees are not paid to get the points: the
wealthy will always get the points. The fees
are paid to build networks for long-term
advancement and to locate children in these
networks from an early age. Segregation and
nepotism of this sort diminishes society as
it deepens inequality and transmits it from
one generation to the next.
Private education needs to go the way
of first-class flying. It needs to be seen as
profligate and unseemly, and to disappear.
At least, it needs to fund itself. The money
saved from subsidising the inequality of
private schools should be used to sustain
investment in access to education for peo-
ple in disadvantaged areas, for Travellers
and for people with disabilities, from the
earliest years. The cuts made in these areas
should be reversed. € million would go
a long way in achieving this.
It has been argued that removing the
state subsidy would drive private schools
into the state sector, requiring further state
expenditures. There is little evidence for
this. The innate ebullience of the wealthy,
in pursuit of the privilege of their children,
so well documented by sociologists and
educationalists and so well favoured by
economists, suggests that, come what may,
there will be a market for private education
in any country iniquitous enough to provide
or support it.
There are choices in times of austerity
and they are stark. Either we support the
well-off or we support the disadvantaged.
When it comes to private education, political
leaders of all persuasion seem all-too-ready
to support the well-off at their most effective
in maintenance of their inter-generational
ascendancy.
Inequality’s engine
Get rid of, or disincentivise, self-justifying, nepotistic
private schools. By Niall Crowley
Gonzaga
College
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Secondary Education
