The State's largest grind school, the Institute of Education in Dublin, is actively seeking to poach teachers from State and other schools by asking students to help them identify good teachers.
An end-of-term report sent to fifth-year students asks them to recommend "excellent teachers" in State and other schools who might be interested in working at the institute.
Students are asked to assess their teachers at the institute under various categories.
The assessment includes:
Teaching performance
The amount of homework given
The time taken to correct homework
The standard of study notes given in class.
It is understood that the contracts of some teachers at the institute have not been renewed after critical comments from students.
Last night the director of the institute, Mr Raymond Kearns, said he had no apologies to offer for trying to recruit the best.
"If you want to know how a teacher is performing, just ask the students. That is a tried and tested rule with me," he said.
The institute's decision to recruit teachers from State schools comes as the "free" second-level sector attempts to compete with grind schools.
Over 20,000 unfilled places are available in free second-level schools in Dublin, while demand for grind-school places is at record levels.
Last night the acting general secretary of the ASTI, Mr John White, accused the grind schools of turning education into a commodity and of failing to provide a rounded education for students. The union is formally opposed to its members working in grind schools.
But Mr Kearns said that many of his part-time teachers were ASTI members.
Mr White said he had no knowledge of this aside from some anecdotal information.
The institute claims that it pays "good part-time teachers twice what they would earn in their regular posts". About 60 of its 100 staff are part-time.
Demand for places at the Institute of Education has increased sharply since the publication of the feeder school lists in The Irish Times.
It emerged as the main feeder school for UCD, TCD and DCU. But the grind school has been criticised by the teacher unions and by leading educationalists.
Mr White accused grind schools of trying to supplant the mainstream second-level system. He asked: "How many students with special needs are in the institute? How many receive learning support?"
Full-time students at the institute pay over €5,000 in fees per year. In a sign of the boom in the sector, the institute recently acquired its main rival, Bruce College in Dublin.
About 850 full-time students are expected to sit the Leaving Cert at the institute next year.
