It was aimed at opening up university to all - yet the abolition of third-level fees has resulted in massive growth in private secondary schools, writes Carl O'BrienSocial Affairs Correspondent
THE EMPTY SCHOOL buildings of the Presentation College in Glasthule, Co Dublin, are living proof that the best laid policies don't necessarily work. The school, built to cater for up to 300 pupils, used to be a fee-paying school for the best part of a century. It changed its status to non fee-paying in the early 1990s, in an attempt to boost flagging pupil numbers.
It had the opposite effect. Numbers dropped sharply, as parents flocked to private fee-paying schools such as Blackrock College and St Andrew's College.
"They're not sending their kids here and the likelihood is that they are going to private schools," the principal, Jim Murray, said at the time. "For a school like this to continue, it's dependent on larger enrolments. And to get larger enrolments would mean a change in perception by the people who are opting to go to fee-paying schools."
Teachers tried taking steps to arrest the decline: they visited local primary schools; held open days for students and parents; produced a glossy brochure extolling the school's virtues. But it was too late. Last year, as its corridors echoed to the sounds of barely 100 students, the school's fate was sealed. It shut its doors forever last June.
It's not an isolated story. At a time when many private schools are massively oversubscribed, there are up to 20,000 unfilled "free" school places across the capital. At least four free secondary schools have closed in Dublin over the last year or so; many more are struggling for numbers.
To most observers, it's clear what has happened: the abolition of third-level fees has dramatically increased the access of middle-class children to private secondary schools and grind colleges. Wealthier parents have been able to divert the resources they might otherwise have been spending on college fees to buying an advantage for their children earlier in the education cycle.
Most recent statistics show that nine of the top 10 feeder schools for both Trinity College and UCD were fee-paying, with the Institute of Education grind school topping both tables.
It's no surprise to people like Tony Fahey, professor of social policy at UCD. Historically, parents sought to secure their child's economic future by passing on a farm or business, he says. These days, parents are simply doing the same by snaring whatever educational advantages they can get for their children.
It wasn't meant to turn out like this. When Labour's Niamh Breathnach announced in 1995 that fees for third-level would be abolished, she compared it to the landmark introduction of "free" secondary education by Donogh O'Malley in 1967. "Abolishing fees will have a tremendous psychological impact," she said at the time. "Education will be seen as a right, not a privilege."
So, was the abolition of third level fees just a grand political gesture, admirable in concept but hollow - and even harmful - in its effects? Or have free fees increased the accessibility of third-level education to all?
On the face of it at least, there has been a dramatic increase in participation rates at third-level among almost all social classes over the past decade. The proportion of school-leavers going onto third-level has risen from 36 per cent in 1992 to 44 per cent in 1998 to 55 per cent in 2004, according to figures compiled by the Higher Education Authority. Almost six out of 10 of this year's Leaving Cert students are expected to go on to college this year.
A further breakdown of the figures indicates the class advantage among the children of white-collar workers and professionals, always the group most likely to invest in education, has lessened. For example, children in families headed by skilled manual workers have increased from 32 to 50 per cent between 1998 and 2004; similarly, the children of semi or unskilled manual workers have increased from 23 to 33 per cent.
There are still major divisions, though. Children from poorer families remain significantly under-represented in our universities. As many as 80 per cent of Leaving Cert students from well-off families go on to third level, compared to between 20 and 30 per cent from less well-off backgrounds. The figure is even more pronounced in the capital, where the middle and upper classes send around 90 per of their children to third level, while, in less advantaged areas such as west Dublin, the rate falls to just over 10 per cent.
Tom Collins, professor of education at NUI Maynooth, says the figures are broadly positive, but may conceal some ugly realities. He says the increase in third-level participation rates does not show whether disadvantaged students are entering high points courses such as medicine and dentistry, or whether they are attending non-university settings like institutes of technology.
"I don't believe that the children going into medicine are from anything other than relatively privileged backgrounds. Also, participation rates don't measure issues like retention of students and their success. Yet students from disadvantaged backgrounds are much more likely to fail," he says.
Collins believes the lifting of fees has been a good thing for poorer students. It has opened up the possibility that they can go onto college. But overall, he says, it has disproportionately benefited the better-off .
"If we had a progressive political system, the money saved by introducing fees should be invested in primary and secondary schools in less advantaged areas," he adds.
Free fees is just one of the measures needed to tackle educational disadvantage. Research over the past 20 years by Dr Patrick Clancy, a professor at UCD's school of sociology, shows that educational disadvantage starts at pre-school level and intensifies through primary and secondary school.
Ability gaps open up early, long before formal schooling begins. Numerous studies show the highest returns are on early interventions that nurture the abilities needed for success in later life.
So what effect would re-introducing fees have on tackling educational inequality? Opinions are divided. Many educationalists say it would be a positive, if savings were directed into tacking disadvantage. Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe says the re-introduction of third-level fees would ensure universities have access to badly-needed funds for research and development. There is little talk of directing funds into bridging the education divide.
In the prevailing economic circumstances, some opposition parties grumble that the crusade to re-introduce fees is an obvious figleaf to cover third-level spending cuts.
Evelyn Mahon, a senior lecturer in sociology at Trinity College Dublin, has said that charging for third-level would be the first step towards privatising third-level education. Just as privatised second-level education has increased class disparities at second level, the reintroduction of fees could increase rather than decrease class inequities, she says.
The practical task is to ensure that if fees are reintroduced, they are applied in an equitable manner that does not act as a disincentive to participation at third level, particularly on the part of those from lower income families.
Schools such as Presentation College in Glasthule may, in part, be victims of what were well-intentioned policies. But maybe we can learn from schools like Collinstown Park Community College in west Dublin. The communities of Neilstown and Rowlagh, which it serves, are among the most disadvantaged in the country, with problems ranging from poor literacy and drug addiction to unemployment.
When the school opened in 1984, there was no one living in the area with a third-level qualification. Most parents had no experience of the Leaving Cert, never mind third-level. Principal Brian Fleming learned that in order to bring students into the education process, parents needed to feel part of it, too. Families in Clondalkin were guided through the system, to help generate a culture of education. There was also a higher education access programme which involved supervised tuition in the evening, and mid-term and Easter revision courses. The progress has been remarkable. The school now enjoys completion rates of 70 per cent (the national average is around 80 per cent). But the most impressive result is in the numbers heading to college, with more than one-third continuing on to third-level.
That might be small compared to elite private schools where more than 90 per cent go to college, but it's ground-breaking for a community without third-level students 20 years ago. "This debate about re-introducing fees is a false one. They say universities are underfunded, but so are primary and secondary schools - and no one is talking about charging fees for them," says Fleming. "If anything, it would be a retrograde step to re-introduce them. Fees might be aimed at well-off families, but the income limits could easily be revised downwards. We're working hard to encourage a culture of ambition among kids in the area. The absence of fees can only help that."