Leaving Cert students have many people to thank for their results, but increasingly middle-class students are thanking private grind schools and teachers of weekly grinds and crash courses, writes Emmet Oliver
If some middle-class students were to contact every teacher who helped them through the Leaving Cert, they would probably have to spend a whole afternoon on the phone displaying their gratitude.
With the numbers attending grind schools rising each year, many students now encounter a range of teachers during their Leaving Cert year.
There is the regular daytime teacher at the local school, a teacher for weekly grinds and another one for crash courses at Christmas and Easter.
The practice of getting extra tuition after school and at weekends has become such a widespread phenomenon in the State that a report two years ago by the OECD placed Irish students near the top of the league table when it came to getting grinds.
Figures this week from the biggest private college in the area, the Institute of Education, bear this out. The owner of the institute, Mr Raymond Kearns, said about 3,500 students this year attended the college's evening and Saturday grind classes, 3,000 attended easter revision courses, 1,500 attended Christmas revision courses and the college itself had 850 students doing the exam in sixth year. Not surprisingly this year's figures are the highest in the 33- year history of the college.
The study skills group, Student Enrichment Services (SES), found in a poll this year that more than 60 per cent of students got grinds during sixth year. While the services offered by SES are mainly for middle-class schools, the figures are still startling. More girls got grinds than boys, the survey found (www.studentenrichment. ie), and it was no surprise to many that girls beat the boys when the results emerged on Wednesday.
Mr Kearns claims he operates in a niche part of the education system mainly for parents "who are prepared to pay money to get the best teachers". He acknowledges that poor students have little hope of availing of this extra tuition.
Mr Michael Hogan, chief executive of Bruce College, which operates in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Belfast, claims private colleges give students "that extra nudge" which helps them produce good results commensurate with their ability.
Could the numbers of students getting extra tuition explain the bumper results this year and last? Mr Kearns refuses to go that far, but says because the institute is able to hand-pick its teachers and pay them high salaries, students get the best tuition available.
However both colleges find little favour with teachers working in mainstream schools who say it is their hard work which is behind the good results.
Mr Kearns says comparing grind schools with mainstream schools is not valid. "An ordinary school principal has a fixed budget, has a certain set of teachers and has little flexibility to recruit whom he or she wants."
His college on the other hand selects the most well-known teachers in Dublin, many of whom have written textbooks in their subject area.
Places like Bruce and the institute remain out of reach for many students. The €4,450 fee for one year at the institute is steep and Bruce charges slightly more than this.