ABSTRACT

Investment in Education became a guiding document in education policy in subsequent years. Directly, it proposed the establishment of Comprehensive Schools and the provision of RTCs – which were both aimed at a radical re-organisation of the vocational education sector – while later policies, such as the Free Post-Primary Scheme, (first implemented in 1967), were more indirect results of the report (White 2001: 32; O’Connor 1968: 234).1 The Comprehensive Schools as well as the Community Schools which superseded them (Coolahan 1981: 194-5) were aimed at integrating the two, post-primary systems of education which had been separated by religious, administrative and educational differences. The secondary school system consisted almost entirely, of denominational Catholic schools run by the diocese or religious orders while the vocational schools were administered by the Vocational Education Committee (VEC), under the auspices of the local authority (Coolahan 1981: 194-5; O’Connor 1968: 239). By encompassing both academic and technical education, Community Schools offered an alternative, broadened curriculum to serve the widest range of students.