Access to education - Losing our brightest is not an option

UNIVERSAL access to education is the mark of a civilised society and, in this country, considerable progress has been made in that fraught, divisive but empowering area over recent decades.

Far more people than ever before have an opportunity to engage with third level education and the figures show that young Irish people avail of this opportunity more enthusiastically than any generation of Irish people that preceded them. That ambition, supported by families and the State but made real by young people’s efforts, is the one of the most determined commitments to the future that can be seen in these challenging times.

It is another of the tragedies of the day that this so often manifests itself in permanent emigration and the heartbreak this can bring to families, especially parents left alone at this time of the year.

Despite this great advance educators, politicians and so many others know that we need to work to ensure that our systems are as efficient and as open as they might be.

Despite all the difficulties, the great challenges around funding and job opportunities on graduation, this is a social project that can never be rolled back. That which was once a great privilege is now more or less the norm and that is as it should be.

Any student who shows the dedication, the potential and the irreplaceable work ethic that might be best served by a place in third level education can achieve that even if it is a great struggle.

It may be difficult, especially for families living in the dismal borderlands between State support and the imagined affluence of what passes for the middle classes today but more young Irish people than ever before have enrolled in third level colleges.

That is also as it should be but, inevitably, there are issues brought to the fore by the very universality of our system and some of those were alluded to yesterday by Dr Michael Murphy, President of University College Cork, when he referred to one of the unforeseen consequences of today’s college systems.

He warned that gifted Irish students have begun to leave Ireland because colleges committed to offering education on a very wide basis can no longer offer them the best possible education. Warning that the country’s economic security, if it is ever recovered, is more dependent than ever before on the ingenuity and competence of our human capital, he pointed to the consequences of this unfortunate brain drain.

Today’s instincts seem to be viscerally opposed to the idea of elites but we would be foolish to ignore Dr Murphy’s warning. Especially as so many other societies might turn our reluctance to face this reality into an opportunity.

Dr Murphy has recognised one of the realities of modern life and it would be a real tragedy if we did not listen to him and take his advice.