Fee-paying schools, on average, are sending more students on to third-level.
The data, published in The Irish Times 2024 Feeder School lists, also shows that school leavers in the wealthiest areas of Ireland are more likely to go on to third level.
But do the annual feeder school lists merely reflect existing inequalities — or could they be contributing to it?
“They’re not causing it, or reflecting it,” says Michael Gillespie, general secretary of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI), which represents post-primary and further education teachers, as well as lecturers in the technological universities and institutes of technology.
“I taught in a community school. It was the only one in town, and it was inclusive. We had special classes who might never go to college, and we had students who went on training and apprenticeships, which are good jobs and are important to the economy. Everybody mixed together.
“So, do other schools down the road send more to third-level, did they have the same inclusion? Did they support special classes, or apprenticeships? Did they participate in the community? What is their pastoral care like?”
Gillespie points out, rightly, that third-level progression data is a limited metric, while Sinéad Dunne, senior manager for access and outreach at TU Dublin, says that there is lots of great work taking place in schools that feeder school lists cannot measure.
Like many third-level access offices across Ireland, TU Dublin’s team works with schools to support young people from less wealthy backgrounds.
“We work with at least 27 schools from primary to senior cycle and we feel what is most important is building relationships with the schools, so we know what the challenges are on the ground,” Dunne says.
“This allows us to know the challenges on the ground much more than an article comparing CAO points or college progression. And this work is not a once-off visit, but an ongoing relationship with staff, guidance counsellors, students, parents and the community.”
Dr Gerry Jeffers, an influential education consultant, researcher and retired Maynooth University lecturer, says that feeder school lists can be disheartening for teachers and school leaders, as they divide schools into “winners and losers” and can weaken solidarity among teachers.
“The almost exclusive focus on CAO points emphasises the technical, rather than educational, aspects of teaching,” he says.
Research from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) points towards an in-built advantage for young people from wealthier families: the ability to pay for grinds. Jeffers says that this deepens inequality.
In 2020, a team of researchers at Maynooth University found that students who attend fee-paying schools tend to do better, on average, because of their prior ability, the money their parents were able to spend on additional tutoring and grinds, their family income and the level of education of their parents. There is no additional boost from attending a fee-paying school over and above non-fee-paying schools, the researchers — including Maynooth University academics Dr Aedín Doris, Dr Olive Sweetman and the late Prof Donal O’Neill — found.
An extensive body of evidence suggests that, contrary to the headline figures provided by feeder schools or league tables, the single biggest factor in a child’s educational success is the educational level of their parents, particularly their mother. Sending them to a fee-paying school does not give them any kind of advantage.
“Schools won’t sustain their position at the ‘top’ of the tables if they take in lots of young people who don’t transfer to third level,” Jeffers says.
Indeed, this all suggests that a child with well-educated and well-resourced parents may, on average, do better in a non-fee-paying school with a more inclusive ethos than a child from the same background in a fee-paying school.
However, parents and guardians who are fully aware of the limitations of third-level progression data are still eager to get information which would otherwise not be available. They are more than capable of understanding that there are many aspects of education which the tables can not capture.
And, for as long as educational outcomes are measured solely by exam results, with no regard given to a young person’s holistic development, they will continue to be a valued metric for many.
For many educators, the existence of feeder schools, whether they like them or not, points to a bigger problem: how third-levels rely on CAO points, which do not pretend to measure anything other than pure academic ability.
“Universities have been negligent, lazy and unimaginative,” Jeffers says. “They should be moving to make access to third-level much easier. First year of college could be common-entry, where people identify the routes that interest them - including apprenticeships — and their strengths are identified. The CAO was a clever device, but it needs reform, and that reform needs to be more than marginal or tokenistic.”
Access to college
Caroline Morakinyo grew up in a single-parent household, the youngest of four siblings.
“I went to school in Adamstown Community College, and it was diverse with lots of different nationalities,” Morakinyo says.
“Growing up in a Nigerian household, education was always important. All my siblings went to third level. In school, we went to open days and we had great support from our guidance counsellors to help us find the areas that interested us.”
For Morakinyo, the problem was never quite what was expected of her: her family and teachers encouraged her. Instead, the issue — as it is for growing numbers of students — was the near-prohibitive cost of third-level education.
The support of TU Dublin’s access programme, as well as a grant from Susi, has opened up doors. Over a third of the university’s full-time undergraduate new entrants come through non-standard routes, including further education.
“The access programme means I don’t have to constantly worry about money, and that is the best support I can get,” Morakinyo says.
“I’ve met other students through the access programme and made lifelong friends. I’ve really enjoyed college so far, and I’m in my second year of law. Without this support, I wouldn’t have been able to focus on my exams and assignments; I’d be too busy working. I feel that access programmes open up so many opportunities. It doesn’t matter where you come from or what your background is: you get to meet others who shine bright, and to be the best version of yourself.”
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