The publication of raw data would be hugely damaging for inclusive, publicly funded schools, writes Jim Dorney
We welcome the Minister's stated opposition to crude league tables.
We also welcome any debate that seeks to improve the conditions for pupils and teachers, but we firmly believe that what the then minister, Mr Martin, declared was wrong in 1998 remains wrong now.
We also acknowledge that an information deficit exists where schools are concerned and suggest that dissemination of the school plan to interested parents and feeder primary schools would provide holistic, contextualised, relevant information to parents and the community served by the school. Each school is required to have such a plan and public access is not an issue. Indeed, it is mystifying that the Minister chose to overlook this resource in his recent Irish Times article.
The Minister stressed the need to compare like with like in any comparison of schools. We agree, but believe that the publication of raw, uncontextualised data relating to exam results or other possible indicators will inevitably lead to unfair comparison that is hugely damaging to the inclusive, publicly funded school that admits all the children of the community and seeks to provide a holistic education for each appropriate to her/his talents.
There are also other valid sources of information about schools in addition to the school plan. Most schools now stage open days for prospective pupils and their parents, facilitating a close inspection of the facilities available and providing a clear sense of the school ethic/ethos.
School principals and teachers are only too willing to engage with the parents of prospective entrants on whatever queries they may have in relation to what a school offers. This certainly provides more balanced and relevant information and insight into the education experience offered by a school than a league table that is blind to the context within which the school operates and the community it serves.
Crucially, such tables would not enhance teacher accountability. There is an established inspection system to assess the quality of teaching and learning. The number of subject inspections in second-level schools has increased from 359 last year to 535 in the current year and is set to rise as more inspectors are appointed.
The net result is that teachers are now more accountable than ever before in the history of the State. League tables - which cannot capture and clearly don't value the innumerable interactions that define the richly textured educational experience offered most particularly by schools that prize all the children of the nation, irrespective of creed, colour, gender, academic ability, family circumstance or socio-economic background - would serve only to undermine the confidence in their schools of children, their parents and teachers and the communities that the schools serve.
It is noteworthy that for-profit, fee-paying grind schools favour league tables.
These businesses attract students who previously achieved very commendable points in their public-sector school but marginally missed out on their course of choice. They spend a great deal of money and an additional year in order to finesse their existing points total - and it is no more than finessing that is required in most cases. Such schools are the nearest thing we have to "points factories" in Ireland. They are exclusive - you don't get in if you can't afford the fee - and will always hover near the summit of any such league tables, regardless of the cost to the holistic development of the student.
In common with the Minister, we in the TUI wish to enhance the effectiveness of schools and have consistently supported the targeting of resources at areas of greatest need.
However, it is naïve of the Minister to suggest that the effectiveness of schools can be acknowledged in information packages that are expressed in terms of indicators and raw data. Does he honestly think that such information would not be immediately transformed into the league-table form so beloved of newspaper editors?
It is clear that the voyeuristic appeal of league tables has nothing to do with the critical pastoral and social development role of schools, which cannot be quantified.
The crux of the matter is that the Minister has reopened a subject closed with good reason by Micheál Martin in 1998, while providing little new input on how best this information could be provided.
His musings produce more questions than answers.
Would provision be made for schools with enrolment policies based on inclusion rather than exclusion?
And what about schools awaiting important building work and refurbishment? Will they be penalised for their anachronistic science labs or computer rooms?
This issue deflects attention from some of the more pertinent matters in education today, such as the chronic under-resourcing of disadvantaged schools.
We would be better served resolving difficulties regarding the school building programme, discipline, the facilities available to pupils and students, the morale of teachers and access for disadvantaged students to all levels of education.
Surely a level playing field regarding school facilities and inclusion/exclusion policies is necessary before any attempt is made to publish comparative data and reports. In the meantime, the Minister should develop some new ideas on the subject. We will be pleased to assist him.
Jim Dorney is the general secretary of the TUI