Sir, - We feel it is now quite timely to raise the issue of student grants, and facilities as even more students ready themselves for third level education. Anyone whose choice on the CAO/CAS was for an RTC course in theory, chose well. The academic standards are good on a national average, and employment prospects are equally good.
However, the truth is that the RTCs built 25 years ago can no longer support the volume of students who pass through their corridors. And in some cases, it is in the corridors students have had to remain, the reason for this, "being the insufficient space for scheduled lectures. In one course in particular, freshers had to stage a sit in before their six week wait for class accommodation could end. Slowly, but surely, a shanty town of portacabins has sprung up on our campus, in an effort by the college to allocate sufficient space for the near doubling numbers of freshers.
Also, student poverty has been a cliche bounced around by so called whinging student activists and the media for some time now. However, it is no bouncing cliche, but a real fact of student life. In effect the grant system is failing to meet the needs of those, who it is supposed to support, and failing miserably. Many students are living a miserable existence, simply because they have insufficient funds. In most cases part time jobs mixed with grant aid fall short of the daily living expenses. The current regulations deny many other students access, to funds that are greatly required. Among these are mature students, who are in their early twenties and qualify for course requirements as such, but not for the grant. This is very unfair, and may cause some students to leave.
So Niamh and Ruairi, please can you give us real free education now, and not a promise at the polling stations? - Yours, etc.,
Education Officer,
Carlow RTC Students Union,
Regional Technical College,
Kilkenny Road,
Carlow.