League tables: will we heed top English schools’ call?

THE recent call by the heads of two of England’s leading independent schools — Eton and St Paul’s — for an end to the “tyranny” of league tables is timely.

Why would these schools, which stand to benefit most from league tables and which originally welcomed them as a breath of fresh air, now think so differently?

Because, in their words, the system is, inter alia, placing huge pressure on teachers to teach exclusively to produce exam results and that instead of throwing a lifebelt to struggling schools, these tables are holding them under water. They are also harming the teaching of sport, music and drama and giving nervous breakdowns to top-performing schools lest they lose their status.