Education

Education & Equality
(Critically discuss the statement that money and education and equality are inextricably linked)
In Ireland the school you go to will possibly determine the type of job that you will have and possibly the outcome of your life. In all Irish schools all children are equal or so they are meant to be! But as the school system in Ireland is free those people with money then tend invest in   educational extracurricular activities for their children which gives their child an extra advantage, for example if their child is weak at maths then they will have the resources to get them grinds, a child from a poorer background will not be able to afford this facility. The division is also visible in other extracurricular activities such as horse riding, ballet, music lessons, etc all these type of extracurricular activities cost a lot of money so therefore children from a poor background do not have access to them. I personally believe that this is where the major division comes between classes and that children then tend to carry this through their life, they tend to believe that horse riding, ballet, etc are out of their league and that they are not worthy to participate in such events because they are for the upper classes the people with the money. Stastics also show that the number of people from poor backgrounds that go on to third level are quite low, as third level is quite expensive, even with grants there are still a lot of costs ie travel, books, materials and childcare for single parents .
If you look at certain elitist groups in Ireland for example a lot of Fianna Fail   politicians in Dublin all went to the same secondary boarding schools and the same third level colleges. So obviously if you have money in Ireland it opens all doors for you and this approach is used by parents from day one ,first the pick the right crèche then the right primary school even if they have to drive the children a distance to it and the same with the secondary...