A chara, - Your edition of May 17th carried some of the findings of the recent OECD report on education entitled "Education at a glance". Many people will be surprised to learn that Ireland lies in 20th position out of 29 countries surveyed in terms of spending on education. Worse still, the proportion of our GDP spent on education has declined from 4.7 per cent in 1990 to 4.5 per cent in 2000, while the country basks in an economic boom. If the Minister for Education is not ashamed of himself, he should be.
Secondly, we have the third highest rate of absenteeism/truancy in the OECD. This should not surprise anyone. School now takes a back seat for many teenagers as the part-time job becomes the great prize. Tens of thousands of secondary school students are working every spare hour they have as they are lured out of school to be exploited by illegal work practices and below minimum wages.
We will hear very little from the Minister for Education or his opposite in the Dail on this matter. The Minister for Labour, IBEC, the Small Firms Association and other relevant authorities are silent. Is it any wonder our schools are under strain and our illiteracy rates are high? - Yours, etc.,
Jim O'Brien, Navan, Co Meath.