While 56,000 students will benefit from the increases in third-level grants, hard choices still remain for the Government, writes Brian Mooney
The victory of Noel Dempsey in securing an additional €42 million, enabling him to increase the level of grants by 15 per cent and raise the thresholds to €32,000 for full grant, €34,000 for 75 per cent grant, €36,000 for half grant, and €38,000 for 25 per cent grant, enabling an additional 5,000 students to qualify for full maintenance grant and an additional 11,000 to qualify for some benefit for the first time, will make an appreciable difference to up to 56,000 students.
In addition, the increase in the threshold for the €670 student service charge from €36,897 to €40,000 will remove a further 4,000 students from paying this charge. A further 7,500 students will benefit from the decision to increase the amount of the "top up" grant to the maximum personal rate of unemployment assistance.
This announcement of a series of increased supports for socially disadvantaged students will enable thousands of students to consider college for the first time. It will also enable those already attending college to reduce the amount of part-time work they have had to undertake to maintain themselves.
The news that there will be no reintroduction of tuition fees gives certainty to over 50,000 applicants to the CAO, who have only a few short weeks to make their final choice of courses. The closing date for change of mind is 5.15 p.m. on July 1st.
What are the long-term implications of this announcement? Apart from the obvious benefit to the 56,000 students affected by these measures directly, a whole range of issues have now moved to the centre of political debate.
The fact that the Minister is still intending to bring proposals to Cabinet to address the problem of access to third-level education from communities that suffer from social disadvantage, shows that he is determined to address the problem of non-completion.
Last year over 13,000 young people who started primary school with last year's Leaving Certificate cohort never sat the Leaving. Over 1,000 of these children never made it beyond primary school and a further 4,000 were lost to education by the age of 15.
Apart from the appalling social cost of this problem, which has led to us having some of the highest illiteracy rates in western Europe, the economic cost is extremely serious.
Our birth rate dropped significantly in the 1980s and the effect of this is only now working its way through the secondary school system. We cannot afford as a society to lose up to 20 per cent of our children from full-time education before the Leaving Certificate. We have become a high-skills economy and the type of jobs available to unqualified young people is no longer viable at our wage levels.
To maintain our economic growth, we must ensure that those children now lost to education in their teens and early 20s receive the resources and support to enable them to fulfil their potential successfully.
This is why Mr Dempsey has to proceed with his review of the supports necessary to reverse this wasteful loss of human resource.
It has been clearly proved, through the various programmes set up to address this issue, that the only way to bring about real change is by a radical reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio in the early years of primary school, alongside supports directed at parents.
Given that the issue of tuition fees is now off the political agenda for the lifetime of this Government, the only means of making a real difference in this area is through additional taxation.
Economists are warning of the implications on inflation of cost increases resulting from Government increases in charges. It is clear that if we want to maintain our economic competitiveness, any additional spending in either education or health will have to lead to a re-evaluation of the policy of reductions in the level of taxation which has been central to the policy of this Government since 1997.
It will be fascinating to watch the political positioning of parties in the Dáil as Fianna Fáil move to address this issues of social disadvantage in education and the health cost implications of an ageing population.
How will the PDs respond when the hard decisions have to be made about increasing direct taxation to fund these two areas? Another issue raised in the education debate, which is still in the ring and may feature in the proposals brought to Cabinet by Mr Dempsey, is who should administer the third-level grants system.
There is a strong belief that those who are in a position to determine their declared income in the tax year their child enters college have organised their affairs to avail of grants they would not be entitled to. If the average of their income over a number of years were used as the yardstick for income purposes, this would not be the case.
Whether Mr Dempsey can persuade the Department of Social and Family Affairs to administer this scheme is still not clear.
There will be strong resistance to change from those sectors that are benefiting from the current system.
•Brian Mooney is president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors