Teachers' and parents' groups in the Republic have largely welcomed the decision to abolish league tables for schools in Northern Ireland.
Those groups and the Department of Education are opposed to the introduction of league tables in the Republic. Although the Information Commissioner granted three newspapers access to league tables, the Department appealed the decision in the High Court last July. A decision in that case has yet to be made.
The National Parents' Council (Primary) said yesterday, however, it was opposed to the removal of league tables in Northern Ireland if the system was not replaced by another way of providing information on schools to parents.
"People have a right to know. If they are sending their child to school they have a right to know how the school is doing," Ms Fionnuala Kilfeather, chief executive, said.
Mr Jerry Fitzpatrick, of the Teachers' Union of Ireland, welcomed the ban, saying it was an indication that the league tables had not worked in Northern Ireland. "This vindicates the strong stance we have taken in opposing the tables," he said.
"For a minister to discontinue that approach speaks volumes . . . It is not educationally sound to have marks compared between schools."
Mr John White, deputy general secretary of the ASTI, said the banning of league tables in Northern Ireland proved that quantitative measures in education did not work.
"League tables simply give a distorted and potentially damaging picture of education. They do not compare like with like and would have an extremely bad effect on education."
Mr John Whyte, president of the National Parents Council (Post-Primary), said he supported the ban. "They give no indication as to the quality of a school," he said. "You don't know by looking at them the added value a school has put into a particular child."