Mick Clifford: Being top of the school league is not always best

The measure of how many students make it to third level, and whether that advance is to a college or university, tells very little about the quality of education from a school, or the overall fairness of the system.

The publication of ‘feeder school’ tables are sometimes misleading and fail to take in many factors, such as student background, fees, grinds, or the profile of school’s intake.

The school league tables were out again this week. These are designed to show parents the “best” secondary school to which to send — or attempt to send — their child. These league tables are no longer called league tables because such labelling is considered vulgar. League tables suggest competition and winners and losers. Instead, we now have the “feeder school” tables, which consist of data compiled that show how many students in each school last year went to third level and to which university or college. This exercise is in the name of parental choice.

Here are a few results to be chewed over without providing any free publicity to the institutions involved. In one school 120% of students went to third level (including deferrals and repeats). This is an amazing feat of numbers if not results. By the measure applied, this is the top, top school in the country. Could you ask for more?