You're absolutely correct there.
I'm from one of the rural Catholic communities in NI and, when I was growing up during the 70s/80s, the phrase "Education is a burden easy carried", was pushed on us all the time. Until Fair Employment legislation came into being in NI, we knew that we had to be much better than other candidates if we wanted a chance to be considered for Uni places, or jobs in 'State-run' organisations, or jobs in any of the really big firms in NI at the time.
Things were very different in those days in so many ways!