Ireland can pave the way to school for children everywhere

Irish people know firsthand the incredible changes that free education can bring to a country — we can help others reach their potential too

A key supporter of the initiative is The Gambia, a country with which many retired Irish teachers have a strong connection, having built strong supportive partnerships since 2011 with Gambian teachers through the work of the Gambia Ireland Volunteers in Education group. Picture: Muhamadou Bittaye/AFP via Getty Images

Having spent many years teaching, I’ve seen how changes within the education system have created real opportunities for children. One of the most important developments in my lifetime is improved access to quality education here in Ireland, fuelled by making education increasingly free.

That direction continues today, with the Government scrapping schoolbook costs for senior cycle students and waiving Leaving Cert exam fees. These are visible steps that ease the pressure on families.

However, expanding opportunities to access education need not stop at our own borders. Ireland now has the opportunity to help enshrine the importance of free education more fully in international law.

Negotiations begin next month at the United Nations on a new children’s rights treaty — one that could, at last, explicitly recognise that all children have a right to early childhood care and education, and to free education from preschool through to the end of second level.

Technically, it’s an “optional protocol” — an update to a human rights treaty called the Convention on the Rights of the Child. That treaty, now over 35 years old, only explicitly guarantees children free education at the primary level. In today’s world, that’s no longer enough.

Ireland’s own path of education reform makes a compelling case for why such an upgrade is not only overdue but worthwhile

I was still a student when Ireland introduced tuition-free secondary education in September 1967. Such a significant change led to dramatic outcomes. 

At the time, a third of children left school after primary. By age 15, fewer than half remained in full-time education. By age 16, barely a third were still at school. 

Yet, within a decade of Ireland making second-level education tuition free, participation rates almost doubled. Today, almost 95% of young people finish upper secondary.

Staying in education

More recently, the introduction of universal free early childhood care and education led to nearly a 95% uptake in just a few years. A 2024 independent review found that 40% of parents would not have been able to access early education at all without the programme.

The lesson is clear, if perhaps unsurprising: Free education means more children walking through the school door and staying. Similar increases in education enrollment are sorely needed around the world.

Although the world is close to achieving universal participation in primary education, around half of all preschool-age children are not enrolled. Only six in 10 children complete secondary school. 

There are various reasons for these dismal numbers, but one of the most widespread and persistent barriers keeping children from schooling is cost. The vast majority of the world’s children — around 70% — live in countries that do not guarantee free schooling from early childhood through secondary.

Moreover, it is now clear that the cost to governments of making education free to children should no longer be a barrier. In fact, pre-primary education practically pays for itself. 

The World Bank estimates that for every €1 invested, returns can reach up to €14. Pre-primary education improves children's employment prospects and earnings in adulthood. It enables parents — especially mothers — to increase their income by returning to work sooner, which boosts tax revenue and economic growth. 

Free education for children is a savvy investment, as well as a matter of fairness, and what should be considered every child’s innate right

One of the leaders of the initiative for the new treaty at the UN is Sierra Leone, one of the world’s lowest-income countries. Yet, it recently changed its domestic law to guarantee 13 years of free education from pre-primary through secondary. 

It demonstrates that expanding access to free education is principally a question of courageous political prioritisation, rather than the size of national budgets.

Another key supporter of the initiative is the Gambia, a country with which many retired Irish teachers have a strong connection, having built strong supportive partnerships with Gambian teachers through the work of the Gambia Ireland Volunteers in Education (Give) organisation since 2011.

Ireland should also be supportive. We’ve walked this road ourselves. We’ve seen how public investment in education transforms lives, communities, and the economy. We should now lend our support to this global initiative.

More than 50 countries from every region on the planet — including the majority of our fellow European Union countries, yet with most of the supporters being from the global south — have already publicly expressed their support.

Ireland should be among them. Let us raise our voice with them — not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because we know, from our own history, that it works.

• Máire Ní Chuinneagáin is the president of the Retired Teachers’ Association of Ireland.