RECORD attendances are forecast for this year's Higher Options conference which opens this morning at the RDS in Dublin.
More than 240 colleges are taking part in the three day conference which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, and some 15,000 second level students and their teachers are expected to attend. However, the opening of the conference last night was overshadowed by the death on Sunday of Christina Murphy, duty editor of The Irish Times and editor of the Education & Living supplement, who founded Higher Options in 1986.
The editor of The Irish Times, Mr Conor Brady, paid tribute to Ms Murphy as "the most courageous and honest of us all". "She was the first to come up with the profoundly simple truth that education isn't about teachers, or civil servants in Marlborough Street, but about children trying to make their way through life," he told the college representatives.
Mr Brady described Ms Murphy as "a profound disrespecter of officialdom and the powers of authority", someone who was "equally concerned about the youngster with low grades as the bright young thing who would sail into medical school".
The conference, organised by The Irish Times and the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, offers students the opportunity to talk on a one to one basis with representatives from the different colleges.
The day time sessions for second level students are sold out, but tickets are available at the RDS for the 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. session tomorrow. This is for parents, mature students and guidance counsellors. Admission costs £4.
