Sir, – Kudos for drawing attention to the cultural and ethnic diversity in Ireland’s school system (“One in eight second level students born overseas”, August 19th).
However, I think the article failed to emphasise the serious implications that unregulated “cluster schooling” will likely have on “minority” students’ educational and their social outcomes and overall well-being.
We only have to look as far as the US to see the widespread negative consequences of segregated education. While “separate but equal” was deemed legally unconstitutional in the 1950s, the majority of African American and Latino youth in the US attend schools with “minority” populations of over 90 per cent; and 25 per cent of African American students attend schools with a white population of less than one per cent. School segregation along the lines of race and ethnicity may be illegal but it is pervasive.
Educational outcomes are dire in many US “cluster” schools. Teacher retention is near impossible, test scores are significantly lower than neighbouring schools, drop-out rates are as high as 50 per cent in some regions. The psychosocial implications of segregation and discrimination are also well documented and yet largely ignored by policymakers.
Today in Ireland, the education system is newly diverse and policies and regulations are still being developed. This is an exceptional opportunity to tackle “clustered” schooling head-on, to acknowledge that separate is never equal.
Allowing the de facto introduction of school segregation along the lines of ethnicity or birth country would be to turn a blind eye to the lessons of history, to disregard the wide body of scientific literature on the positive effects of integration for majority and minority children’s educational and social outcomes.
If we put our heads in the sand now there will be serious implications for “minority” children in Ireland as we see history repeat itself. And when that day comes, people will say that it is about religion, or school enrolment policies, or town lines, or family preference but it won’t be about race or ethnicity – oh no! Never about that.
– Yours, etc,
KATE BABINEAU
Mount Brown,
Dublin 8.