Giving some bite to college hopefuls

This Thursday 19 people from Ballymun, Dublin, will be presented with third-level college awards, including a master's degree from UCD and bachelor's degrees from DCU, DIT and Milltown Park Institute. They are the latest graduates of the Ballymun Initiative for Third-Level Education (BITE) which has seen nearly 250 local students go on to college in the past seven years, with 42 graduates so far.

Last month TCD held a conference to mark five years of its Trinity Access Project (TAP), which works with seven schools in deprived areas of Dublin's inner city - Inchicore, Crumlin, Kilbarrack and Tallaght - where unemployment rates are between 35 per cent and 80 per cent.

BITE is the country's most successful third-level access programme. It was set up by the Ballymun Job Centre, Ballymun Comprehensive School and DCU with US charitable funding.

It works with eight local primary schools and the 1,200 students in the comprehensive school. It provides an extraordinary range of activities, including after-school homework and activity clubs at primary and into first year of second-level; 73 students receiving £200-400 in third and sixth year to help them study and support themselves through Junior Cert and Leaving Cert; oneto-one supervised study programmes leading up to those exams, duplicating the `grinds' available to better-off students; and PLC and third-level scholarships,the latter worth £1,000 per student.

"One result is that going to college has come to be seen as a common experience in Ballymun, not a one in a million thing" says Mary McCarthy, a Ballymun Compehensive teacher.

The TCD project started in 1992, after the incoming Provost, Dr Thomas Mitchell, expressed horror at the fact that, of the 1,600 students admitted into first year in 1990, only three were from the lowest socioeconomic group.

The TAP initiative provides funding for talented students, annual prizes, reinforcement teaching and supervised study using TCD student volunteers, parent support and a summer school for preLeaving Certificate students.

The interim results of a research project on the TAP, carried out by Dr Jean Whyte, showed that there had been a doubling of the number of sixth formers from these schools entering third level since the project started in 1992, from six to 12 per cent. At the same time there has been a slight drop of 11 per cent in the number of students in the TAP schools who think it would be difficult to get into third-level college.

One barrier to progress was the lack of interest of many parents, says Whyte. They need to be supported not only to see the value of further education, but also in helping their children to develop "a sense of responsibility for themselves and their future."

A crippling lack of resources was another negative factor. Parents have stressed that financial support to undergraduates from TAP schools should be a priority. TCD has already put two law scholarships in place and other departments and businesses have also proposed bursaries.

The TAP project will be extended to four more schools this month and four more next year. Its co-odinator, Dr Deirdre Raftery, said the project's greatest success has been to begin to change deprived young people's attitudes to third-level education by bringing them on-campus for open days and summer schools.