As leaving Certificate students prepare to receive their exam results next week, a new survey suggests that 73 per cent of them have taken grinds outside school hours over the last year.
The popularity of grind schools was also underlined by the finding that 49 per cent of Junior Certificate students attended grinds at least once a week in the same period.
Girls in single-sex schools were the most inclined to avail of extra tuition, with 79 per cent of them taking a grind.
The research was carried out by the study skills group, Student Enrichment Services, which surveyed 1,000 pupils spread over 100 post-primary schools.
The group said the high number of pupils taking additional tuition outside school hours reflected the "intense pressure" on them to get high marks.
While 73 per cent of sixthyears took grinds, this dropped to 47 per cent in fifth year when students are on their first year of senior cycle.
The SES pointed out that in poorer schools pupils might not be able to afford to pay for additional lessons.
The popularity of grinds, according to teachers, has increased greatly in the last decade, with some of the grind schools in Dublin becoming multi-million-pound businesses.
These schools provide weekly classes plus shorter "crash courses", when students cover a large amount of material intensively and receive extensive notes from teachers, many of them hand-picked from mainstream schools. Teachers also give students lessons after hours in their homes.
While students are taking additional tuition to improve their grades, the survey indicated dissatisfaction among them with the current exam system. Some 61 per cent agreed with the statement that continuous assessment would be a fairer system than relying almost exclusively on one terminal exam.
While students appear to be spending more time in grind schools, their involvement in part-time work is decreasing for the first time in many years, according to the survey.
Only 15 per cent of sixth-years had a part-time job during the year, compared to 19 per cent in SES's survey last year. Some 27 per cent of fifth-years had a job compared to 40 per cent the year before. SES said the efforts of school authorities brought the reductions about. It knew of some schools which had forbidden students to take up employment.
SES said one disturbing statistic was that computers seemed to play a very limited role in students' education, especially those in senior classes. When asked if computers played an important part in their secondary education, only 31 per cent of Leaving Cert students replied in the affirmative.
However, the figures improved with Junior Cert students, with 47 per cent of them using computers as part of their studies. This figure rose to 66 per cent among first and second-year students.
Overall satisfaction with school was high, according to SES, with 68 per cent of pupils happy at school and 14 per cent unhappy.
The details of the survey are available at www.studentenrichment.ie
Emmet Oliver can be reached at eolive@irish-times.ie