Children should not pay for bankers’ debts

THE Irish education system is limping from crisis to crisis.

Overcrowded classrooms in prefab units unfit for purpose. Children with special needs denied support, third-level education fast becoming unattainable for many. Now the Government’s ‘value-for-money audit’ threatens the survival of small rural schools.

This is a false economy. Finland was in a similar economic situation to Ireland in the 1990s. Rather than react with short-term panic measures, they invested in education as a tool for recovery.