Leaving Cert offers us lessons in economics

With the Leaving Cert results out, and students awaiting CAO offers, we might wish to consider again some of the problems of the second-level system, and in particular how basic economic principles can help us towards a solution.

We have a well-educated population. The OECD education statistics tell us that 37.7% of the population have tertiary education, compared with 31% for the OECD on average.

For secondary education, this is reversed, with Ireland at 35%, but rising consistently vs the OECD average of 44%. We have, in effect, a two-tier labour market — a younger population with a higher education attainment than an older. This is clear if we look at the age cohorts — educational attainment drops as we move into older age cohorts and we drop behind the average.