Time for 'official' league tables?
- Published: 09 December 2008
Source : Irish Times
Tue, Dec 09, 2008
TEACHER'S PET:Six years have passed since this newspaper first published its annual feeder school list or school league tables. At the time the publication of the list unleashed a wave of protest from the usual suspects in the teacher unions. These days, the annual feeder school list has become an integral part of the education calendar. Parents look forward to them, principals want to check on them, teachers want to peruse them.
Indeed, it was the huge popularity of the feeder schools list which prompted Mary Hanafin's decision to publish Department of Education inspection reports.
The methodology used for the The Irish Times list has changed over time. Schools are ranked on the basis of the percentage of pupils they send to college, rather than on a head-count basis. Virtually all third-level colleges on these islands are now included. Every effort is made to check and double check information culled from 50 separate lists and involving more than 700 schools.
But all of this is done on an unofficial basis by the media. The colleges themselves have no input into the compilation of such lists.
There has to be a better way. How about the seven universities compiling their own list in association with the CAO and releasing it officially? Other colleges could also compile and release their own lists.
At the moment, the colleges have the best of all worlds. They release the information to the media, get plenty of good PR, but take little responsibility for the manner in which it is used. This silly "hands-off '' approach to school lists should end - now.
• As Christmas exams approach, what is on the minds of every teenager in the country? If this reporter is any guide it is Chris Brown, the 19-year-old RB singer.
At 9am last Wednesday hundreds of school kids were queuing for tickets for his forthcoming Dublin concerts. Should they not be in school?
• Ferdia Kelly, general secretary of the group representing second-level school managers, deserves great credit for the compromise deal on substitution which averted potential chaos in schools next month.
For weeks, Kelly worked behind the scenes with Department officials before securing that key €2.7 million extra payment from Batt O'Keeffe.
And you can expect a similar deal at primary level. No one has the stomach for closing schools during this economic crisis.
© 2008 The Irish Times
