Almost 50 per cent of students in the top-performing Dublin schools in the Irish Times feeder-school lists also attended part-time grind courses in the Institute of Education, according to the institute yesterday.
The institute, in Leeson Street, Dublin, is the largest grind school in the State, with more than 700 students paying more than €5,000 a year for its full-time sixth-year course. Thousands of students also attend part-time courses.
However, the institute did not feature in the overall top 25 feeder list for third level published on Monday. Yesterday it said it was not getting due credit for the results achieved by some other schools.
The institute claims that some 47 per cent of students in the top 25 list for Dublin schools attended at least one of its courses at weekends, during holidays or in the run-up to the Leaving Cert exams. These figures cannot be independently verified by The Irish Times.
The institute has boomed in recent years. In part, this was due to the publication since 2000 of feeder schools lists, which saw it emerge as the top feeder school for many universities. This was based on actual numbers sent.
The institute, while still performing strongly, has done less well this year because the Irish Times list charts the actual percentage of Leaving Cert students going to third level, and not just the "raw" number.
In reaction to the lists, Fine Gael has called for the publication of standardised Department of Education reports on schools to clear up confusion.
Fine Gael education spokeswoman Olwyn Enright said some schools were performing very differently in the feeder schools lists published in recent days because newspapers used different methods to compile their lists.
She said it should not be necessary to have a degree in statistics to interpret the available information on how schools operate.
Under Fine Gael proposals, annual school reports would be available, free, directly from each school to anyone who requests a copy. Results from State exams would also be included.
