Madam, - For many years the literacy of students entering third-level education has been declining. A possible explanation for this can be seen in a statement issued by the Teachers' Union of Ireland on the refusal of fee-paying schools to take pupils with special needs. The TUI declares that it is "abhorred by" this situation (The Irish Times, April 17th).
The TUI knows very well that fee-paying schools are private institutions, may set whatever entry criteria they wish and need not acccount for these criteria to anybody. Why does the union not campaign to end the payment of teachers in fee-paying schools from public funds so that the schools would have to be funded entirely by fees and be truly "private" as in the UK or the US?
Could it be that TUI members who send their children to fee-paying schools would be "abhorred by" such a development? - Yours, etc,
SEAN BYRNE, Sutton Park, Dublin 13.