Madam, - What utter confusion in Prof Tom Collins's Teaching Matters column (December 12th), in which he tries to persuade us that league tables would make it more difficult for schools to "challenge the processes of preordained failure". I looked really hard, and could not see a single convincing reason why parents should not be told what the Department of Education and the school principals already know: what exam results emerge from each school each year?
Yes, this is a limited measure of school performance, and account must be taken of school resources, admission policies and the different local populations served. But surely we can have a much better debate about resources and privilege when we have the information that shows starkly (as league tables surely will) how geography and class (I mean social-economic class) determine so much of our childrens' future.
Exam results are only part of the story, but they are truly revealing of how some pupils are not failing but are being failed by the system. It is deplorable that educationalists such as Prof Collins and the teaching unions conspire with the Minister for Education to keep this important information secret. - Yours, etc,
PATRICK KINSELLA, Dartry, Dublin 6.