Looking to the future – Ending disadvantage?

Throughout the second half of the 20th century, equality of educational opportunity has been an important aim for educational policy-makers across the western world. In 1963 in Ireland, Minister for Education, Dr. P. J. Hillery, when commenting on the need for the State to provide an opportunity of "some post-primary education for all" referred to "the equality of educational opportunity towards which it is the duty of the State to strive". In the 1960s, equality of educational opportunity was interpreted as equality of access and when the barriers to access were removed (through the abolition of school and university fees and the introduction of free transport for pupils attending primary and second-level schools), it was initially thought that this would suffice to achieve equality of opportunity. In subsequent decades, the focus moved from equality of access to equality of participation and from that to equality of achievement / outcome / benefit.