Education

Q. What policy is the Coalition Government adopting in relation to third A. The primary factor is that of the overall cutbacks in social expenditure which the Government is engineering as its response to the economic recession. The cutbacks have had different effects in the various educational sectors, and the Coalition's projections are outlined in its Briefly, the plan is to maintain the binary system of education while at the same time strengthening the technological sector at the expense of the arts-oriented universities. This will tie education more It was just such a move which caused the huge student upsurge in France last academic year, an upsurge which proved to the Government the futility of trying to implement a policy contrary to the interests of students. In Ireland, Government policy is reflected financially. The universities have everywhere been cut back financially while in some cases finance for the technological sector has actually increased, A. The effects of these cutbacks has college towns and £120 max. for students been to force students to pay an increas- from the main cities. ing proportion of the colleze budget thr- tote t+ ough higher fees. In UCD the Higher Educ- Q@. How has the student movement reacted ation Authority proposed that the percen- to these attacks? tage of college finances provided by stu- 2 eg ie a, 5 dents should increase by about 10%. Desp- A. The response has been uncoordinated ite the arguments used by the colleges in and lacking in political leadership. USI raising fees by a standard 25% in most has failed totally to act to defend stucolleges (e.¢, the rate of inflation) dents! living standards, and has met. the there has been no corresponding increase offensive of the Government with inertia. in Corporation and County Council grants, Last year even the annual grants march level education? proposals on higher education of 1974, directly to the needs of industry.

— a 4. i Q. What have been the practical effects of the cuts, particularly on students?

+ ++ 4 The means test remains at the 1969 level of £1,600 per annum parental and this INTERVIEW WITH STUDENT MILITANT Too - ae BETTY PURCELL has been active as a socialist for many years and was a member of the Dublin South East Constituency Council of the Labour Party before resigning with many others after Labour's decision to e enter a coalition with Fine Gael.

Betty was elected to the SRC of UCD and then elected Vice-President, She was active in the founding of the Students’ Union and has stood for President on a socialist programme. She is active in the womenst and socialist movements. She is a founder member of the UCD Womens Liberation Group and Irish Women United. She is also a member of the Movement for a Socialist Republic, Irish Section of the Fourth International, year only the fees maximum limit has been raised, while the maintenance element remained at £300 max. for students from non was shelved, as the Union's only response to the dwindling numbers mobilised each

ement for a Socialist Republic NAME ........-20<-ccccccceesesssseccnereenseereseascesserenessurasnasenesapeasneeenspussnecsnssanquenserisnsnstanenseeness ADDRESS Serene RRS S SESS T SE SS OCTETS See ebb 85S SSS SEES ESS SET SS STT EE EES Ree TE SE fitter etesseeee Send to. The Secretary, M.S.R. 38 Clanawley Road, Dublin 5. year. Official Sinn Fein and its "Broad Left" fellow-travellers have failed to assess the development of Government policy and are still churning out the slogans used in the late 60s, the period of educational expansion.

They see the changes taking place in Irish education purely in terms of status, the main danger being the takeover of the "practical" and "democratic" technological ethos by the "elitist" and "academic" ethos of the universities. They fail to analyse or understand the effects the economic recession is having on Irish education, and that Government policy does not remain static in this light. It is simply not enough to say that the Government is anti-working class, and therefore favours - financially and otherwise - the "middle class" universities over the "working class" RTCs.

The development of both sectors is ucpendent on the needs of Irish industry for different skills at different times. In fact, USI's "defence" of the technological sector may be viewed as a cynical manoeuvre to maintain votes at National Council (where the tiniest RTC has equal voting rights with the largest universsae a Q. What do you see as the main tasks of revolutionaries in hieher education in the coming year?

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A. The most immediate task must be the setting up of committees to fight all proposed cutbacks in education. These committees must be prepared to act decisively to defend students, and to make students aware of forthcoming dangers such as fee increases. Student union elections should be contested on these issvues, All of this should be seen in the context of changing the present bureaucratic leadership of USI and of making that organisation truly responsive and attuned to the needs of students. The importance of equipping USI with a consistent policy for fighting the cuts should not be underestimated.

Parallel to this, radical students should attempt to win committment from the student bodies to defend the civil liberties of the Irish people, at present under such severe attack by the Government. In particular, students should pressurise for the abandonment of the barbaric practice of capital punishment and for a reprieve of the Murrays.

Also in the area of civil rights, student unions must intensify their activities for the legalisation and free dispensing (through the Health Boards )of contraception, and urgently demand equal administration of social assistance to all school-leavers, whether male or female, “Fut ame more question - can you rum a school withour money?”

IRISH SECTION OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL I WOULD LIKE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE M.S.R.

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