OPINION:THE TOP justification for The Irish Times publishing lists of transfer rates from schools to third-level education (November 22nd and 28th) is they provide the "most comprehensive source of information on schools for parents". This questionable assertion is made as if the exercise is innocent and neutral.
The newspaper constructs consumerist tables that emphasise “winners” and “losers”. The commentary adds to the manufactured sense of competition between schools. Educational “success” is casually equated with higher league table positions, as if the field of play is level or this narrow view of “success” is acceptable.
There is an acknowledgment that publishing such lists “can stigmatise schools in disadvantaged areas”, though singling out particular Dublin locations on the front page seems like rubbing salt into wounds.
I suggest an alternative reading of the data. Rather than view transfer rates from a consumerist viewpoint, the figures can be seen from a public policy perspective. This analysis is relevant to parents and should be of concern to decision-makers in the Houses of the Oireachtas, Department of Education officials, members of vocational education committees, church trust bodies and boards of management.
Our schooling system should strive to support the flourishing of all learners as a key outcome.
The 1995 White Paper, Charting Our Education Future, set out five underpinning policy principles: pluralism, equality, partnership, quality and accountability. The principle of equality is at the heart of the protection of individual rights and community wellbeing. These Irish Times lists prompt uncomfortable questions about equality and Irish schooling practices.
The national transfer rate of school leavers to third-level education is 55-60 per cent. Why do so many schools deviate from this norm (more than 100 schools have a transfer rate in excess of 80 per cent)? In a fair system, one might expect some variation, maybe even 15 percentage points from the 55 per cent mark. But what is going on when more than 30 schools are recorded as having 100 per cent transfer rates, while more than 55 schools have rates below 40 per cent?
Transfer rates from schools near one another show disturbing differences, ie 100 and 36 per cent or 93 and 15 per cent. The figures suggest a form of educational apartheid. Is educational disadvantage the flip-side of educational privilege? Can “ghetto” schools only develop if we permit “elite” schools?
Other questions hover over this discussion: about transfer rates to other forms of further education and employment, completion rates, school size, early childhood education, and other factors. When deviations from the norm are so pronounced, a questioning finger points at schools’ enrolment policies and practices.
The 1998 Education Act obliges each school to “establish and maintain an admissions policy which provides for maximum accessibility to the school”.
Schools in receipt of public funding should have admission policies that are fair, inclusive and transparent. If policymakers are to take “the common good” seriously, then greater levels of co-operation between schools at local level – including common enrolment policies – are desirable. Ideally, boards and trust bodies should lead such initiatives.
Of major concern is the strong impression that some young people and their families do not feel welcome in certain schools, even when such schools use inclusive language in their policies. There are many ways in which schools can effectively screen out, for example, newcomer children, Traveller children and young people with special needs. Is excluding some children the price of high transfer rates? Parents’ right to send their children to a school of their choice is an important value, but it is not absolute. It must be balanced by other values, notably equality and the common good. Stigmatising schools, students and teachers in particular areas damages community wellbeing.
Based on The Irish Timeslists, it is difficult to see how the common good is served when so many schools deviate from the national transfer rate. Educational ghettoisation is not desirable, at either end of the spectrum. Surely a fairer system of schooling is possible.
Gerry Jeffers is a lecturer at the education department, NUI Maynooth