MOIRA LEYDEN,
Madam, - The recent Forfás study entitled "Factors Influencing CAO Choices", covered in your edition of February 25th, does not conclude that private school pupils do better in the certificate examinations than other students.
This study, prepared for the Forfás expert skills group, sought to identify the factors that influenced choices made by CAO applicants in 2002, investigate if there is any promotional activity in the education system which may influence CAO choices and assess how CAO choices can be influenced.
The study does not purport to make any kind of comparison between pupils from private schools and pupils from other schools.
Out of 58,489 who sat the Leaving Certificate last year, Forfás surveyed 600 students who were known to have submitted application forms to the CAO in 2002. These students were later surveyed as third-level students, employees, repeat students, etc. The study is therefore based on a select number of students, a limited number of third-level institutions, and an even more limited number of schools.
The Forfás study does not define the term private schools - that is, it does not say whether these schools are grind schools or fee-paying secondary schools. It does not say whether the students were repeat Leaving Certificate students seeking to top up their points for university places or whether they were ordinary senior-cycle students. In fact, the only thing we know about the private schools referred to in the study is that they represent a "small base".
The fact that students from fee-paying and grind institutions schools do better in scoring points than students from other schools is well established. By definition, schools which select by way of ability to pay fees, academic tests, and motivation will send more pupils to third-level than schools which accept the whole social cohort of pupils.
While the Forfás study gives incomplete statistics on the average points scored by pupils attending different kinds of schools, it gives no indication of the performance - academic or otherwise - of second-level schools.
The parameters and purposes of the study are clearly outlined in its report and do not include a comparison of schools. Any attempt to use the study to compare Irish second-level schools is misleading and damaging to Ireland's education sector. - Yours, etc.,
MOIRA LEYDEN,
Assistant General Secretary,
Education and Research,
ASTI,
Dublin 8.
