We need to act now to stop the gap between State and private schools fromwidening further, writes Brian Mooney.Second-level schools: Time to protect equal opportunities

Nothing is more central to family life than the decision as to where our children are educated. In many cases, it is the determining factor in the decision as to where people live. The recent revelations give a clear picture of what drives parents in their choice of school.

It is clear from the published statistics that there are two distinct educational environments in this State. The divide is between Dublin schools and the rest of the country. Outside Dublin, children from all backgrounds are educated together. There have been many amalgamations of religious and VEC schools over recent years, to form one large college, offering a wide range of subject choices. The statistics showing the percentage of students attending the seven universities clearly demonstrates that a wide range of State schools outside Dublin are sending an equally high, if not a higher proportion of their students, to Irish universities than many of the private fee-paying schools within Dublin.

To me, this indicates that, outside Dublin, students from all socio-economic backgrounds attend school together, without this leading to any diminution of academic performance on the part of the educationally ambitious.

The situation in Dublin is totally different. To understand the genesis of the present situation one has to go back to the establishment of the free education scheme by Donagh O'Malley in 1968. At the time, most secondary schools charged fees, which were paid by the minority of students who proceeded to secondary school. When the scheme was introducedsome schools introduced a voluntary contribution to make up the difference between their original fee and what the Department paid them per pupil.

Fifty-eight schools stayed outside the scheme on the basis that they could not envisage themselves providing the level of service required to their students with the funding provided. Among that number were the Protestant schools, which continued to receive State funding, as they had since the inception of the State in order to protect their ethos.

The educational environment in Dublin operated relatively harmoniously until the mid-1990s. A number of factors then conspired to change matters radically. The decision of the Government to abolish university tuition fees removed this cost from parents. The Celtic Tiger increased income levels considerably. The major increases in property values enabled families to release considerable equity through re-mortgaging their homes.

The cumulative effect of these factors led many parents to opt to send their children to fee-paying schools. This influx of middle-class, mainly Catholic students into fee-paying schools had three main effects. It changed utterly the religious balance in Protestant schools - many of them now have a majority of Catholic students. It led to a major expansion in pupil numbers in the private sector, for whom fee-paying schools received additional teachers, paid for by the Department. Finally, it led to a major decrease in the numbers attending State schools.

The cumulative effect of these changes has meant that the numbers in many traditional Dublin secondary have dropped to 50 per cent of the level they enjoyed only eight years ago. Given that the number of teachers allocated to schools is based on pupil numbers, many such schools have not had a new teacher appointed in up to 10 years. During this time, teachers have being retiring and their subjects have, in many cases, no longer been available to students.

The inevitable consequence of this is that many of the traditional non-fee paying schools in Dublin are in danger of becoming non-viable in the eyes of parents. They have an aging staff profile, a decrease in subject choices and a decreasing revenue base, as funding is allocated on a per-pupil basis.

What can the Government do to rectify this situation?

In my view, the only solution lies in a rationalisation of the existing traditional schools. The Government should enter into immediate negotiations with the religious orders that own these schools to plan an amalgamation programme which would lead to the emergence of number of State-funded schools of sufficient size to offer a wide-ranging curriculum which would be attractive to parents. Such a proposal would only make financial sense if the revenue from the disposal of the sites vacated by the existing schools were to go into building funds for the new schools. Given the commitment of the religious orders to social justice, I cannot see how they could stand in the way of ensuring that all children get an equal opportunity to receive a well-rounded education.

I do not believe that we can turn the clock back and punish the fee-paying schools for responding to parental demand. What the Government must do is to ensure, as they did in 1968, that parents who wish to have their children educated in State schools have good quality, with a full choice of subjects and other facilities to choose from.

Brian Mooney, the president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, is writing in a personal capacity.