Schools’ league survey ‘not the true picture’

PRINCIPALS, teachers and parents have criticised a survey showing how many students from every school in the country went to university last year.

They claimed the county-by-county lists in this week’s Irish Farmers’ Journal did not reflect the true picture.

The survey ranked schools by the percentage of school-leavers who went to each of the country’s seven universities. It did not take into account numbers going to institutes of technology, agricultural colleges and other institutions.

The Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI) said any attempt to compare schools based on this information was damaging to the country’s high quality education service.

The Irish Farmers’ Journal said it was inevitable there would be some mistakes in the data, which came from the Department of Education’s exams branch and the universities.

“We had a number of calls pointing out errors but they are only a small percentage of the whole picture,” said a spokesperson.

“We know that university attendance is only one piece of information about individual schools. The point we tried to get across is that fewer students from rural schools, which are further from universities, actually go there,” he said.

Post primary National Parents’ Council president Michael O’Regan said league tables were a bad idea because they did not reflect the provision of education in each school.

Colm McDonagh, principal of St Flannan’s College, Ennis, said the figures quoted in the survey for his school were seriously inaccurate.

Gerry Malone, principal of Coláiste Rís in Dundalk, said the survey found that three of its students went on to Dublin City University. But, he said, the number should actually be four and it did not include a student who went to UCG.

“It doesn’t reflect, either, the fact that we had six students who got into universities in Northern Ireland.

The principal of Laurel Hill Coláiste in Limerick, all of whose Leaving Cert students were shown to have taken up university places last year, was also angry. “These league tables are a blunt instrument that never give the full picture or circumstances of each school and its students,” said Anne Mordan.

Kilkenny Fine Gael TD Phil Hogan said the survey showed the cost of going to university was a far greater impediment to entry to third level than quality of education and points received. It found that less than one-third of Kilkenny Leaving Cert students went to university last year.