Sir, – Brian Whiteside (March 20th) makes several welcome and valid arguments in favour of a secular education system, but he failed to mention a big one – efficiency. My immediate catchment area has four primary schools. This means it has four buildings (or expensive rented prefabs), four head teachers, four carparks, four pitches, four playing yards, four boilers, four administrators, and so on. A combined school with greater economies of scale could save a lot of money. This could be invested in reducing the pupil-teacher ratio, employing special-needs assistants and resource teachers, improved school sport and IT facilities and in extra-curricular activities.
The current system serves the religious orders well but not the pupils or the taxpayer. – Yours, etc,
EOIN O’LOUGHLIN,
Blessington,
Co Wicklow.