45126-Invest. Qual-No111

Investment in Qualityhad become increasingly important. Thus it could be expected thatthe enhanced absolute social mobility opportunities and theexpansion of educational opportunities would lead to a moremeritocratic society.The Council reflected, in 1996, on the significant influence of classorigin on educational attainment and noted the different ways inwhich social groups had responded to, and been affected by, theeducational expansion that began in the late 1960s. Farm familieswere particularly successful in accessing education, including atthird level, and thus entering the white-collar occupations comingon stream through the restructuring of the economy. Indeed, thescale of their success had contributed to some rural areas beingdrained of young people and human capital. The unskilled andsemi-skilled working class, by contrast, did not prove as able toadapt to the new economic realities. While their jobs were in declinesimilarly to farmers, their children did not increase theirparticipation in education to the same extent and were particularlyunlikely to be in third level. As a result, relatively few of themfound their way into the new white-collar occupations associatedwith the country’s stronger economic performance. The Councilconcluded:The differential response to educational opportunitybetween the classes most affected by economic changehas yielded the principal social structural defect inmodern Irish society – the creation of large segments ofthe working class which have lost their traditionaloccupational base, been unable to find new occupationaloutlets, had their children poorly integrated into the fullrange of the education system, and been progressivelymarginalised as a result (1996a: 42).The research carried out by Layte and Whelan presents an index ofinequality of outcome between the professional and managerialclass and the non-skilled manual class. Examining the extent ofthese inequalities over time, the research finds that, rather than adecrease in the scale of class advantage over the period 1973 to1994, there was in fact an increase. Finally, examining trends over112