Sir, – Dr John FitzGerald writes that "As yet we don't have an answer to whether investment in extra [third-level] education pays off", and argues that if it doesn't raise productivity, it should be "revisited" ("Time will tell whether extra investment in education pays off", Business Opinion, September 16th). He thus appears to boil the investment in education argument down to a purely economic one.
I would have thought that the purpose of educating our young people is to improve their capacity to think for themselves and to provide them with deeper insights and wider horizons.
But even if one were to consider the purpose of education in purely economic terms, surely ignorance is more expensive? –Yours, etc,
GERRY MOLONEY,
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Howth,
Dublin 13.