Madam, - It was with great interest that I read your supplement on feeder schools in The Irish Times of November 21st.
I congratulate your Education Editor, Sean Flynn, for a much more balanced and honest overview than we have heard or seen in previous years from different media sources. I also fully agree with the seven bullet points about the type of information the public wants from, and on, schools.
However, while acknowledging Mr Flynn's balance, and despite the expanded list of third-level institutions used in the survey, I would like to add to this information both for my school and, I am sure, some others in the same situation.
The King's Hospital is a Church of Ireland co-educational boarding and day school. Three hundred and seventy of its 700 cohort are boarding pupils, coming from all over Ireland and from abroad. Every year a substantial percentage apply not only to CAO but also to the UK Ucas system. Ucas offers specific courses to suit the individual pupil's choice and there is a far greater selection available.
We feel that this offers the pupils greater opportunities and more career possibilities. We find that, perhaps because of the boarding school environment, our pupils are mature and well able to adapt to university life abroad.
Ucas should not be regarded as an easier option. It is a more complex system involving much greater information than points, with the pupil's personal statement, references and, in some cases, an interview required.
On the 2004 figures published, we could add to the percentage shown in the list for our school the following: 9.6 per cent for UK and European universities; 6.1 per cent for an Irish private college, the Royal College of Surgeons; and 5.2 per cent deferred their offered places for one year. The approximate 10 per cent remaining have taken various other paths.
Of course, I do not expect The Irish Times or any other media source to have this information but it is essential that parents know that there are further questions to ask, either in person or by visiting websites.
Finally, I do hope that the special education needs question does not become another football. It is far too serious. The figures quoted in the media are again only a small part of a much bigger picture. As a school that always has had a non-selective academic intake, we are quite aware that many pupils have learning needs with which we deal without any assistance and this is the same for many schools.
As a footnote it was most disappointing to see in the recent "Education for Persons with Special Education Needs Act 2004" that gifted children do not appear to count as having special needs. - Yours, etc,
FRANCES HILL,
Headmistress,
The King's Hospital,
Palmerstown,
Dublin 20.
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Madam, - Your survey on students from second level schools gaining places in third-level education takes no account of students who chose to pursue their studies in Northern Ireland, particularly at Queens University and University of Ulster.
Many students leaving St Macartan's College opt to study in Northern Ireland as their first preference. Our most recent data for 2004 Leaving Certificate students, for example, indicates that a total of 23 students opted to pursue degree courses in universities in the UCAS system. Such students are excluded from the data which you presented. Why? The Sunday Times survey of November 20th included students gaining places at both Queens University and the University of Ulster.
It is clear that the figures in your survey do not reflect the full and accurate picture in respect of our own school and, I am sure, other schools in the border counties. - Yours, etc,
PARAIC DUFFY,
Principal,
St Macartan's College,
Monaghan.
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Madam, - As a second-level student I feel I must take issue with some of the points raised by your supplement on "feeder schools".
Firstly, the extensive lists and figures deal only with the academic aspect of the schools listed, as if achieving a place in a third-level institution is the only acceptable outcome for a secondary student. Public and private schools alike are lauded for their contribution of students to the various universities and institutions, as once again the media successfully add to the pressure already on students to conform to a particular academic system, and to receive adequate points in order to gain a third-level place.
While the survey does not claim to be anything it is not, it certainly does not give any kind of comprehensive overview of the performance of the schools listed, and realistically will only mislead parents in their search for a prospective school for their son or daughter. Surveys such as this further contribute to the points race culture, whereby academic achievement is the benchmark for success.
Even more alarming is your publication, for the second time in a month, of figures relating to special needs places, and yet again it is the minority group of Dublin-based private schools that incurs the pseudo-liberal wrath of the compilers. Most private schools admit a very low percentage of overall applicants, and to suggest that some sort of quota should be attained is simply dangerous in its advocacy of positive discrimination.
Lists such as those published can often be helpful, but when it seems that certain agendas are being pushed within the selection of figures published, there can be no positive outcome. - Yours, etc,
DARREN HENRY,
Iveragh Road,
Dublin 9.