Fee Paying schools and Education Cutbacks

national | education | opinion/analysis

Friday November 14, 2008 23:31

by Oscar - None-Pers Capacity

oscar_1939 at hotmail dot co dot uk

Where's the debate on Fee Paying Schools?

This article is an invitation for people that may know the answer to the following questions i have in relation to fee paying schools. I understand that the state pays the wages of teachers in fee paying schools while allowing them to also charge those parents who can afford it - fees.
My understanding is that this is situation is an historical anomaly based on most fee paying schools being protestant at the creation of the state 90 odd years ago. I was wondering in these times of cut backs , is it true that the state continues with this situation.....

This contribution starts out with a question that needs to be clarified so that further debate may occur. I understand that the state pays all wages etc in fee paying schools like it does in your average community , CBS, Convents etc. The difference obviously is that fee paying schools then charge those parents who are rich enough to a fee for their sons or daughters to attend which they usually spend on resources which attract more status anxiety parents to send their juniors to these fee paying schools.Afflent schools become better resourced while state schools have to collect / beg for Tesco vouchers to acquire computers, supervalu for sports equipment etc etc

I have been told that this anomaly dates back to when the state was founded and it was one of those finer details to facilate the protestant population at the time of Independence, to allow the Protestant population to have commercially viable schools since their population was small and disparate. Hence traditionally all the fee paying schools were protestant so there may have been merit in this arrangement. This certainly is not the issue today.

The issue is that now the country is a very different place and lots of fee paying schools are catholic based so why is the state continuing to unfairly subsidise these schools especially in light of these recent education cutbacks which will hit schools except in fee paying schools who can use the fee money to keep student:teacher ratio down

I have never heard this debate being brought up by any orgainistaion and think that if this is the case the debate is long overdue. I am hoping people can enter the debate and if i am wrong in any of my assumptions i am open for correction but in my research i think that this indeed is the true situation. Hoping for a wide range of contributors so that if this is the case it should be taken up as another case of the state subsiding those in least need of government handouts, the usual case of hypocrisy in this ireland of equals