Sir, – The headline "North's poor education system a recipe for failure" (John FitzGerald, Business Opinion, April 26th) is harsh. The 50,000 students at Northern Ireland's two universities in a population of 1.8 million may be compared with 128,000 students at universities in the Republic which has a population of 4.8 million. Northern Ireland has 27 per cent of the population of the island and 28 per cent of its university students.
In addition Northern Ireland has some 17,000 students attending British universities and 1,200 students at the Republic’s universities. They meet the school-leaver requirements to enter universities in both jurisdictions.
Northern Ireland has a good working labour market. Unemployment in February 2019, at 3 per cent, was two percentage points lower than in the Republic which is widely regarded as a successful labour market.
The Republic’s success in raising relative GDP per head in recent decades is widely attributed to the attraction of foreign direct investment. The return on investment in education is increased and funds are generated to reduce the numbers of early school-leavers, as John FitzGerald ably illustrates.
The Troubles reduced the ability of Northern Ireland to compete for foreign direct investment. When we have institutions and policies which restore trust and attract foreign direct investment, the benefits of investment in education in Northern Ireland will be seen there, rather than in the countries to which its able students and graduates now emigrate. A recipe for success. – Yours, etc,
SEAN BARRETT,
Economics Department,
Trinity College Dublin,
Dublin 2.