Investment in Education and the tests of time

Abstract

Thirty years after the publication of Investment in Education, Patrick Clancy wrote that the report represented ‘“the” foundation document of education’ in the era since the introduction of economic planning in the late 1950s. This paper considers the importance of the report in disseminating theories of human capital formation (as well as other less recognised influences) among Irish political and educational elites. Investment contributed to a seminal shift in educational policy linked to a widely held conviction among politicians, officials and international advisers that education was vital to national economic salvation. This paradigm shift was informed not only by changing domestic priorities driven by a legacy of economic failure but also by wider international trends inseparable from the Cold War, especially the importance accorded to education and technological development as key battlegrounds in the global struggle between the capitalist West and the Soviet Union. Defining ideas of Investment – notably increased financing of education as an essential factor in economic development and the necessity for a far-reaching expansion of participation at post-primary and higher levels, not least to meet a perceived shortfall in the supply of well-qualified workers – became central to Irish educational policy over the two generations that followed publication of the report, as illustrated by quantitative trends examined here. Due to the extraordinary persistence of these features over this period, it is worthwhile examining their emergence as lasting forces in an ‘effective history’ of education that is much more than historiographical interpretation.

Keywords:

• Investment Report
• Irish higher education
• economics of education

Notes on contributors

Andrew Loxley is a co-founder of the CAVE research centre and a sociologist in the School of Education, Trinity College.

Aidan Seery is Director of the CAVE research centre and member of the staff of the School of Education, Trinity College.

John Walsh is Ussher Lecturer in Higher Education in the School of Education, Trinity College and a member of the CAVE research centre.

Notes

1. For one example that simply mentions the connection in a modern context, see Enright (2011).

2. It is perhaps noteworthy that, in addition to the modernisation of school laboratories, there was provision to use some of these funds towards the learning of a ‘modern foreign language’.

3. NA D/FIN 2001/3/546, D500/2/62, Governing Committee for Scientific and Technical Personnel, STP/GC (61) 1, Outline Programme for Scientific and Technical Personnel 1961–62, 30 January 1961, 3–4.

4. NA D/FIN 2001/3/546, D500/2/62, Governing Committee for Scientific and Technical Personnel, STP/GC (61) 1, Outline Programme for Scientific and Technical Personnel 1961–62, 30 January 1961, 4.

5. According to Barry (2006), these funds were intended to generate amongst the EU's less economically developed countries a degree of convergence towards the EU norms in terms of economic and social activities. The funds, a part mix of EU, state and private sector spending were intended to ‘develop physical infrastructure; to assist private sector … in investment, marketing and innovation; human resources through professional and technical training and job retraining’ (544). Between 1989 and 2003, Ireland was the recipient of €13.2 billion in funding as one of the four ‘cohesion countries’ (along with Greece, Spain and Portugal).

6. The labour participation rate for 1960 was 39.4%; in 1974 it was 36.6 and averaged 38.6% and 40% during the 1980s and 1990s.

7. As a ‘rough guide’ to the structural changes which have taken place in the Irish economy vis-à-vis occupational activities, in 1966, 345,008 people (of whom were 90% males) or 30% of the labour force were involved in agriculture, by 2011 this had dropped to 91,526 (89% males) or 4% of the labour force; though the decline in agriculture was well under way as the sector has dropped by 45,000 workers since 1961. By 1986 the numbers employed in agriculture had fallen to 166,937. In 2011, there were 305,124 (13.6%) workers in ‘wholesale and retail occupations’ and approximately 60,000 (5.6%) in 1966 held similar positions. In 1966, there were 36,447 (3.4%) people involved in ‘education’ which rose to 167,290 (7.4%) in 2011. In 2011, 10% (229,060) were involved in ‘manufacturing’ and in 1966 this was 18.6% (198,377). ‘Construction’ accounted for 74,140 (6.9%) workers in 1966 and 158,201 (7%) in 2011. In 1966, 1.5% of the labour force were engaged in ‘insurance and finance’ and 4.5% in 2011. Lastly, 43,189 (4%) and 102,881 (4.6%) were involved in ‘public administration’ including the Gardaí and the defence forces.

8. As a point of comparison the spending on health as proportion of state expenditure mirrored that of education over the same period.