Seanad debates
Thursday, 16 October 2003
Order of Business. - OECD Education Report: Statements.
Senator Tuffy referred to free third level fees. That initiative did not sort out completely, by any manner of means, the whole question of equity and disadvantage. Clearly, there is still a substantial problem, something that people overlook when they refer to people from deprived backgrounds. Higher education was a middle-class privilege but we tend to forget that the middle-class has expanded enormously in the past 30 or 40 years and that represents an expansion of equality of opportunity. There is more that needs to be done, however. This report is encouraging but there is much more for all of us to do.
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