Case highlights a contradiction in private education

Sir, – Your report, that a parent is bringing the Department of Education to the High Court over its refusal to fund specialised classroom chairs for a student because he attends a fee-paying school highlights an obscene contradiction in the private education system (“Youth refused special chairs for classroom due to attendance at fee-paying school, High Court hears”, Courts, June 12th).

If private schools can readily afford to build state-of-the-art hockey and rugby pitches, swimming pools and modern science labs which apparently ensure that their students reach the peak of their physical and intellectual prowess, why can these same institutions not afford to provide an autistic student with the essential equipment required to simply sit in a classroom and access a basic education?

It is a stark hypocrisy to happily finance gold-standard facilities for one cohort of students while pleading poverty when it comes to the basic dignity of another. – Yours, etc,

SEAN KEAVNEY,