Sir, – I fail to understand the reasoning behind the argument that the lack of appetite for a student loan scheme in higher education in Ireland is an example of “old politics”.
One of the key reasons that the higher education sector is in such a precarious financial position is that political decisions have been taken to reduce State funding to higher education by over 30 per cent in the last five years.
Irish governments appear intent on abdicating their responsibility for education as a public service and social responsibility to the people of Ireland while they act as followers of Eurocentric fashion and push higher education into the vagaries of the markets. A better question might be, who benefits? Who might benefit if thousands of young Irish students each year are straddled with high levels of personal debt in a world where mass higher education is the new global benchmark, and where private fortunes are made from buying and selling debt? – Yours, etc,
Dr GERALDINE
MOONEY SIMMIE,
Lecturer in Education,
Faculty of Education
and Health Sciences,
University of Limerick.