Madam, - Your Editorial (March 28th) stated that Ireland's expenditure on education was 5.2 per cent of GDP. In fact, that was our 1995 expenditure. It has since decreased to 4.6 per cent of GDP (see OECD Education at a Glance, 2007). In comparison, expenditure in, say, Denmark , is 7.1 per cent.
For a nation with aspirations towards a "knowledge based" society, this underfunding is indefensible. As called for at the recent Asti conference, the Government should set a target for education expenditure, as it has done for overseas aid. Prof Tom Collins of NUI Maynooth suggests 7 per cent.
As taxpayers, we will recoup all this expenditure, and many multiples more, in future generations of bright, well-educated, confident young people.
We have failed to maximise on the affluence of the last 10 years.
A target of 7 per cent of GDP expenditure on education should be set now.
Our present level of expenditure is short-sighted and misguided and can only be storing up problems for the future. - Yours, etc,
Dr KEVIN LALOR, Department of Social Sciences, DIT, Aungier St, Dublin 2.