Madam, - Seán Barrett (February 8th) was insular and myopic to say the least. May I bulldoze through his seven paragraphs and ask him to look at the case of the early school-leaver?
The current national figure stands at 21.7 per cent - more than a fifth of our youth leave second-level education without a Leaving Certificate.
The Education Welfare Act of 2002 has still not been implemented. On a daily basis I meet 13, 14 and 15-year olds who are not attending school.
In Co Kildare, (despite having the fastest-growing towns in Europe), there is no education welfare officer.
So both the children missing from school and their parents have reassurance that nothing will be done.
So from where I'm standing Mr Barrett needs to leave the comforts of the Department of Economics in Trinity College and start back on the abacus. - Yours, etc.,
ANNE FITZPATRICK,
Advocate for Early
School Leavers,
Newbridge,
Co Kildare.