Sir, - Can the National Parents' Council and the teachers' unions not see that the rest of Ireland is coming out of the dark ages of secrecy and deference? The whole basis of their resistance to publishing school examination results is that the authorities, not parents, know best, and that citizens should leave choices in education to the authorities.
Yes, league tables will put pressure on schools and teachers; nowadays most managements and workers are subjected to some sort of performance measurement. Yes, exam results are a crude instrument; but parents should also have access to the other information affecting schools' performance.
To say that releasing the information would turn all schools into "grind schools", would distort subject choices, and reduce provision of sport and games (as John Whyte of the NPC is quoted as saying) is sheer arrogance and a scornful underestimation of parents and school managements.
The Secretariat of Secondary Schools adds that league tables will take no account of "the environment in which each school operates". Well, perhaps it would be good to be confronted with forceful evidence that rich children do better than poor children, so that something is done to redress the imbalance. - Yours, etc.,
Patrick Kinsella, School of Communications, Dublin City University, Dublin 9.