A chara, – While I appreciate many of the points made by Seán Flynn regarding change in the education system (“How Quinn can make a difference”, Education Today, March 15th), I was disappointed to see he supports the notion of publishing exam results and setting up school league tables. The “bad news”, as he puts it, is that the Government appears to favour something like the present system where schools are assessed “across a wide range of criteria”.
I find it hard to believe that anyone so interested in education can fail to see that school league tables are not the answer for parents looking for information on schools and are very damaging to the quality of education their supporters believe they uphold and protect. A league table, presumably based on a standardised test, would simply take on all the failings Mr Flynn outlined in his point on the weaknesses of the Junior and Leaving Cert exams – namely, rote learning and teaching the exam, not the child.
The very minute an exam result becomes the sole indicator of where a school will stand in a league table, is the very moment the child, and his/her particular strengths, needs and education, becomes less important. They must now jump through an educational hoop, and show how good their teacher and their school is. How can this be seen as progress? – Is mise,