Community and women's groups were suffering "burnout" in the hunt for funds, and it was proving more and more difficult to get voluntary help as women were increasingly "driven" into working in the booming economy, a Trocaire conference heard yesterday.
The emphasis on degrees and other forms of certification was reinforcing social inequality and exclusion, rather than helping to tackle these problems, the conference on development education was told.
It was impossible to train people when this involved taking expensive courses in an academically-geared system that was completely unsuited to the needs of people who left school early, said Ms Liz Waters of the Shanty Educational Project in west Tallaght.
"For all the Government is saying about the value of adult education, it is putting nothing into it," she added.
Ms Mary Sutton, head of communications and education in Trocaire, said young people experiencing the boom times in Ireland were in danger of being cushioned from the realities of injustice on their doorstep and in the wider world.
In many countries education was being turned into a commodity, according to a leading Brazilian educationalist, Mr Marcos Arruda.
"This is the main thrust of the World Bank's programme of educational reform. They want to get people to fit into a system that can never be challenged."
Education must serve the goal of human development, of which economic development was just one aspect, he said.
