Madam, - Lies, damned lies and statistics. This adage is particularly apt in relation to the recent publication of "feeder school" tables. The statistics released by third-level colleges openly admit the inaccuracy of their data with the disclaimer that they do not reflect the schools in which students repeated the Leaving Certificate.
As the leading repeat Leaving Cert centre on Dublin's northside, Plunket College is given no credit for the many students every year who achieve college entry standard after repeating the Leaving Cert here. Ironically, these students are credited to the very schools where they failed to achieve the required college entry standard.
Unlike grind institutes, which charge several thousand euro per full-time student, repeat students at Plunket College pay only the nominal repeat fee levied by the Department of Education and Science. In return for this they receive full tuition and a well-rounded education for the year, including access to the CDVEC's psychological and guidance service, the foremost body of its type in the country. However, none of this valuable work is acknowledged due to the admitted inaccuracies of the colleges' data.
Accordingly, it came as no surprise, given the parameters set by the colleges, that Plunket College did not show up at all in the Dublin 9 feeder school table for Trinity College, UCD or Maynooth College. However, it did come as a surprise that Plunkett School (sic), Swords Road had one pupil who went on to Dublin City University. What was even more surprising was that Plunkett School (sic) had been relocated from Dublin 9 to Co Dublin.
It is simply not good enough for the colleges to hide behind disclaimers when they release data which they know to be inaccurate. - Yours, etc.,
BERNARD McDONNELL, (Assistant Principal), Plunket College, Whitehall, Dublin 9.
Madam, - It should come as no surprise that private and grind schools, compared with free schools (The Irish Times, May 20th) achieve more places at our "leading universities". Fee-paying and grind schools by their very nature have more resources to provide the many extras which help to produce a high-quality education.
In the present climate an excessive value is placed on the points system by both third-level institutions and employers. The result is that acquiring points is unfortunately seen to be synonymous with a good education.
I agree with John Downes (May 21st) that education is about far more than performance in the Leaving Certificate. Nevertheless the reality facing parents is that it is the points that afford their children access to the career of their choice.
Thus the responsibility for the "education apartheid" reported on by John Downes can only lie with the Government. As long as the Department of Education and Science favours the points system and there is evidence to indicate that private schools deliver the highest points, parents will naturally opt for such schools.
What is clearly needed is a more equitable system of education. Otherwise the academic and indeed social divisions that exist among our school-going populations will continue. - Yours, etc.,
Prof MONA O'MOORE, Department of Education, Trinity College, Dublin 2.