Sir, – A principal of a south Dublin private school is quoted as saying, “We have lots of families of relatively ordinary means who make big sacrifices to send their children here .. . they don’t drive the second car, they don’t go abroad on holidays” (“Private schools in Ireland: What do they charge and how much have their fees risen?”, Education, December 19th ).
The word sacrifice is emotive and is being severely misused in this context. The families to whom this principal refers make choices; they make decisions to spend their disposable income on the private education of their children. Whether it’s a second car or a holiday they eschew is their business and emphatically not a reason for them to benefit from increased State support.
These families are fortunate to be in the position to make such decisions but to suggest that some families make “sacrifices” in order to procure a private education points to how far removed from the reality of life for so many families the principal of that south Dublin school is.
It is scandalous that in this republic, elite fee-charging schools receive over €100 million annually in State funding . – Yours, etc,
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SHEILA MAHER,
Goatstown,
Dublin 14.