Symposium on the economic returns to education

Abstract

The Second Programme for Economic Expansion, published in 1963, was the first public acknowledgement by the Irish government that expenditure on education was an investment in the nation’s future. It was to be many years before those so-called increasing returns were to be quantified. The two previous speakers here this evening have given striking examples of the economic return on education both in this country and in countries of the OECD. It is not my intention in this short input to repeat the points that they have already made. Nor do I intend to provide a smug, self-satisfied résumé of the success of our education system in achieving these outcomes. Without in any way taking from the successes of the system, my focus this evening will be on the underachievers and the so-called ‘failures’ of the system and on the moral and economic imperative facing us in the years ahead to eradicate the factors which have contributed and continue to contribute to this problem.