|
There are many problems with the Irish education system...but thankfully in areas such as this, it excells.
You get a free education all the way up to the end of secondary school (i.e. high school), when you sit the Leaving Cert. You take seven or eight subjects, and when you get the results, you choose your best six results. You are awarded 0-100 points for each subject, and so you end up with an over-all total of 0-600 points.
By the time you have recieved your results, you will have already submitted your applications to various colleges/universities.
If a particular course has say 65 places, the 65 students with the highest number of points get offered the place. End of story.
College is free to everyone the first time round...you can go for any degree/cert/diploma you want, and it will be free. (If you flunk out however, you have lost your chance, and if you want to repeat/take a different course you have to pay).
This way, it doesn't matter who you are, who you know, how much you daddy is willing to "donate" (*cough* bribe *cough*) or anything else. You get in on merit. Economic factors are reasonably insignificant for most people...you don't have to pay any fees. If you are particularly poor, you can also apply for a grant (e.g. if you live at home and your parents earn below €X)
I think that this is the fairest possible system any country could hope to have when it comes to organising college/university places...race or anything else just simply drops right out of the equation.
__________________
|