Student Discrimination

Discrimination against students who didn’t progress to higher education through the traditional route was also high on the agenda for many of the respondents. This discrimination seemed to be made all the more acute because of the distinction between one route of entry and another. When asked about the impending changes, with SOLAS and the ban on further development of two year courses, Teacher 2 felt it was limiting the choice for the students.

T2: I think it is limiting because I don’t think alternatives exist, so it really

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Principal 2 made some strong statements in relation to how people had to self- label in a most discriminatory way and that the traditional route was the most advantageous for students wanting to progress to third level education.

P2: Like the idea that in many cases that somebody would try to re-enter

education through the further education or the mature student route or ‘the here or there’ scheme, like the CAO system. The easiest way to get into it is to go through the most advantaged route through with the Leaving Certificate. If you're going through any other mechanism first of all you have to self-label, I am a personal disability I am from the socially disadvantaged route.

Pressing the point further Principal 2 remarked how the new legislation had taken away the distinction between further and higher education.

P2: It's not a question of what you've learned it's how you've learned it. Effectively that's the basis of what the discrimination is and it is discrimination in my view. It is interesting in the new qualifications act that there is no longer a distinction between further and higher education.

Principal 5 remarked that the distinction between further and higher education in Ireland is quite distinct. She makes the point that it is very difficult for students in further education to break through and she compares this with the apparent opposite situation in the UK.

P5: The division between higher and further here in Ireland is quite

distinct and quite negative in a way. It's awfully difficult to break down the door to try and make some sort of arrangement or an alignment, or progress students into our higher education whereas in the UK it is perceived as being the done thing.

When asked whether there was any form of distinction or discrimination between liberal and vocational education, Principal 5 continued to make the point that an historical snobbery existed with regard to vocational education.

P5: I think there still is. I mean the vocational school in this country has always had like something stuck on your foot shoe. That's where the guys who didn't make the school on the hill go and they are not capable of a good Leaving Cert. and they'll do woodwork or metalwork or whatever. Vocational schools around the country they were always a little bit of a second partner compared to the secondary school, the Convent or whatever; Christian Brothers…

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Deputy Principal 1 remarked that Department of Education was a bureaucratic entity that viewed education distinctively and therefore categorised it and placed education according to its type in specific institutions.

DP1: At all times the Department of Education from my perception is one of a bureaucratic entity. It is dominated by a bureaucratic view that certain types of education should be in certain types of constriction, certain types of boxes and should never vary from that.

Deputy Principal 2 had similar comments to make about categorisation in education and compared this to the ghettoization of education.

DP2: I don't think education should be in the ghetto of any type and you can have good ghettos and bad ghettos, and when you’re considering sites at (University Name), well that's a good ghetto but it's still a ghetto in my view. So I think we, I think you want to mix the students, you want a mix of backgrounds, you want a mix of courses and I think that's where things happen best.

Principal 6 is critical of the CAO system as the main route of entry to third level education and questions how they know those students will be fit for purpose.

P6: Well it was highly unlikely, unusual to go through any other than the

CAO and I blame the CAO system for delivering students into the doors so easily whatever fit they made we don’t know.

Principal 8 remembers arguing with educational correspondents from the press who consistently referred to ‘second choice’ or ‘second chance’ education.

P8: I used go out of my mind I’ve been talking to Christina Murphy and others from The Irish Times and The Independent who were dealing with and would also say there is hope for some sort of mini survival in a PLC, I still get red behind the ears when (Name) the guy there in The Irish Times is still at the same old argument, if you can't make it to University don't just die just yet ,there is a little bit of life in a PLC curriculum kind of crap.

It appears from comments of teachers, principals and deputy principals that discrimination and distinction between further and higher education is part of the common discourse and is reinforced every year after the CAO offers are made, when educational correspondents offer hope through what is generally perceived to be second chance education.

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