THE Conference of Religious of Ireland has criticised the new Education Bill for not tackling the problem of educational disadvantage and inequality at a time of increased awareness of the link between education and poverty.
The director of CORI's education office, Sister Teresa McCormack, said yesterday recent trends had reinforced the CORI argument that education had "begun to replace other factors, such as inherited property, as the mechanism by which social inequalities are preserved from one generation to the next.
"Children who are poor seem destined to remain poor and marginalised in the future unless specific policies aimed at reversing the situation are adopted and are successful."
She said more than 90 per cent of the approximately 4,000 young people who leave school every year without qualifications are from poor backgrounds. The number of such young people entering university is about one seventh of those from upper middle class backgrounds.
CORI proposes eight amendments to the legislation. It says the Bill makes no attempt to distinguish between "those who are disadvantaged in education by material poverty from a whole variety of other `special needs'".
This distinction should be made clearer. The Bill's attempt to "give effect to the principle of equality in the section outlining the objects of the new regional education boards, "only mentions access and participation". CORI wants it amended to include the promotion of equality of opportunity to "benefit from education.
It suggests that each education board should have to set up a committee to advise on policies and strategies to deal with educational disadvantage, in the same way as the Bill proposes a committee on the Irish language.
The Conference points out that education as funded at present tends to benefit young people from comfortable background most. For example, the State spends more than twice as much on educating a third level graduate than an early school leaver.
It wants more application of positive discrimination in this area, and more alternatives to the capitation system of funding, which it says penalises schools in poorer areas. It proposes that a new clause be added to the legislation, stating that "the grant or grants paid to a school shall reflect the level of educational disadvantage experienced by the students attending the school".
One of the legislation's most disappointing features is the way it "treats adult and community education as marginal to the rest of the education system", said Sister McCormack. CORI wants the education boards to be required to provide "second chance and community education, especially for those who have not benefited from their schooling".