Outward-oriented economic development and the Irish education system

Abstract

Most studies of the relationship between education and economic development focus on the line of causation running from the former to the latter. The present paper studies how the pattern of Irish development has influenced the structure of the Irish education system. The first section sets out the economic context of late industrialisation within which Investment in Education was commissioned in 1962 and how it influenced the reception that the report received. The report's release would be followed shortly thereafter by a series of policy measures that would expand secondary-school enrolment and graduation rates and massively increase the demand for third-level places. Later sections analyse the subsequent evolution of Ireland's binary system of tertiary education and the recent attention devoted to science, technology and innovation policy and the ‘fourth-level’ (postgraduate) sector. Concluding comments focus on the continuing relevance of the perspective embodied in Investment in Education for the surprisingly high numbers who continue to leave the Irish education system without a leaving certificate qualification.

Keywords:

• economic development
• outward orientation
• Irish education system

Notes on contributor

Frank Barry is Professor of International Business and Economic Development at Trinity College Dublin.

Notes

1. The National Industrial Economic Council was a forerunner of today's National Economic and Social Council.

2. Similar concerns would be expressed in the 1967 Survey of Grant-Aided Industry (paragraph 3.13), the first major study of the impact of the new industrial incentives introduced in the 1950s.

3. This practice was adopted from 1966.

4. This section of the paper draws on Barry (2007).

5. Tertiary-type B courses are typically shorter and focus on developing practical, technical or occupational skills. These data come from OECD (2012, Table A1.3a).

6. Note again the earlier quote from NIEC (1964a) that ‘meeting present and prospective economic needs can be regarded as fulfilling only a minor part of even the economic aims of education’. The narrow focus on STI in this section reflects the aim of the paper to chart how the particular pattern of Irish economic development has influenced the structure of the education system. This influence has not been embraced without question or criticism.

7. Irish Times, 2 April 2004.

8. OECD (2012, Table A8.1).

9. These themes are explored in the literature on ‘varieties of capitalism’; see, e.g., Hall and Soskice (2001).

10. Education is sometimes asserted to be ‘a public good’. This is an inappropriate use of terminology. The defining characteristics of a public good are non-rivalry (one person's consumption does not reduce the amount available for others) and non-excludability (if the good is provided, it is difficult to exclude those unwilling to pay for it). National defence, or street lighting, largely fulfil these criteria. Education does not. The beneficial spillovers associated with education do provide an argument for partial subsidisation however.