Funding education - Hard choices on fees can’t be avoided

ALMOST 58,000 young people will get their Leaving Certificate results this morning.

Many of them, and some parents too, will imagine it the most important day of their lives, but the fullness of time will offer another, less absolute perspective. The exam is of course very important but life will, almost certainly, bring far more important and fulfilling moments.

More than 40,000 students hope to continue in education, so a great number of parents will be torn between wishing the very best for their children and wondering how they will finance their children’s entirely reasonable and laudable ambitions. At this moment of great economic uncertainty, most families are finding it hard to make ends meet so the prospect of ever-increasing education bills is unwelcome.