Every August, when the Leaving Cert results come out, newspapers are inundated with calls from schools whose pupils have gained six or seven straight As. Private "crammer" schools take out ads detailing the successes of their pupils in the exam.
So what's new about league tables? (See page 13). They have been used in Britain since 1993, and while nobody likes the idea of "naming and shaming" schools - as successive Tory ministers would have it - the tables have been responsible for turning around many of the so-called "sink" (underperforming) schools. The downside, of course, has been the demoralising of some schools and some teachers. But, if they hadn't been effective, the new Labour government certainly would have embraced them so wholeheartedly.
The Information Commissioner's decision that the 1998 Leaving Cert results could be published for the purpose of league tables has brought an immediate and negative response from the teacher unions, the National Parents Council Post-Primary (though not Primary) and the Department of Education and Science itself.
Arguments against league tables include the prospect that it could turn rounded second-level schools into crammers; that it would encourage cherry-picking of the brightest students (as if selection doesn't go on in many schools already); that schools would drop the non-performing aspects of their programmes; that it would highlight the differences between well-resourced and under-resourced schools; and that it would demoralise schools and teachers.
But the major point in favour of the publication of results is the provision of greater information for parents about schools' performance. Parents already trawl many areas for information about schools when selecting one for their children. They ask other parents, check the school's results with friends and relations, take into account a school's religious ethos or lack of it, its location and range of extracurricular activities. In short, they already form their own league tables.
Crude as league tables may be in terms of judging the merits of a school on the basis of its Leaving Cert results, is it any cruder than judging the merit of a student on the basis of his or her Leaving Cert results? Perhaps it is more difficult to get an A in music than in home economics. But does that mean that a parent who wants his son or daughter to take music is going to decide in favour of a school that doesn't provide music, just because it's higher on the league table? And is a student given points for sport or other extracurricular activities in the Leaving Cert? No, so neither will a school which emphasises such activities get brownie points for them in a league table - and parents will know that too.
We must bear in mind that this decision - which may be appealed to the High Court by the Department of Education and Science - relates only to 1998 results. The Education Act gives the Minister powers to refuse access to any information which could be used to compare schools' results in the future. This could, however, be the subject of a further legal challenge.
The Department's proposed whole school evaluation process, which the ASTI also opposes, is much more in line with what most parents want to know about schools. Before getting all het up about league tables, shouldn't we concentrate our minds on this?
What this all boils down to is the issue of information - freedom of information. Information in itself is not dangerous, just the uses to which it is put. At the end of the day, suppressing information is censorship, and censorship should never be condoned.
EDUCATION LIVING
Editor: Ella Shanahan Production: Harry Browne and John Moran Main cover illustration: Kevin McSherry Small cover illustrations: Cathy Dineen E-mail: education@irish-times.ie
