Do grind schools still have a point for new breed of student?

As the CAO cauldron cools, points drop and the number of college places exceeds demand, what will happen to private Leaving Cert colleges? Are the grind schools having to refocus to stay in business and attract enough students?

Ask a teacher in any State school how she feels about grind schools and you're likely to get a gruff response. Twenty years of CAO hysteria have pushed up the numbers of students enrolling in private tuition colleges where the emphasis is squarely on points.

Colleges such as the Institute of Education and Ashfield College in Dublin, Bruce College in Cork, Yeats College in Galway and the Limerick Tutorial Centre have thrived by providing exam-focused tuition delivered by largely non-unionised teaching staff. Extra-curricular activities have, traditionally, been kept to a minimum. Teachers in the State sector complain that this is an impoverished approach to education and resent losing the best and brightest from their schools after four or five years.

This year, however, the balance has changed. The points race is slowing down, and before too long universities will be fighting for students, rather than the other way around. What will this mean for private colleges which have built success on the desire of students to squeeze every last point out of the competitive Leaving Cert? Can they survive in a more relaxed environment?

All the colleges interviewed anticipate a downturn in repeat Leaving Cert applicants, and each is dealing with the prospect in different ways.

Bruce College in Cork has extended its service to include first to sixth years, and is moving closer to the conventional school model.

"We expected this downturn to happen, and set up the junior school in anticipation," says Bruce College principal Michael Landers. "However, our repeat numbers are actually up 10 per cent this year, which is surprising. It could be an artificial situation created by the maturation of the SSIAs - we could see a downturn next year."

However, Landers contends that there will always be a market for private Leaving Cert tuition - and not always because people feel let down by State schools. High failure rates in maths is a big issue as it severely limits the options a student has. "Just because the points are dropping doesn't mean that students don't still have to meet the entrance requirements for courses," says Landers.

Nonetheless, Bruce College now has many of the features common to the traditional school model - a Junior Cert cycle, two and a half hours of sport a week and cultural trips are part of the package. Annual fees at the college are €5,900 per year at senior cycle.

The Institute of Education on Leeson Street, which has 750 sixth-year students enrolled for this year (33 per cent are fifth years, 33 per cent are repeat students and the remaining 33 per cent are new in to sixth year) has seen a slight shift away from repeat business this year. John Morris doesn't believe that this will affect the way the original grind school does its business.

"There will always be a demand to maximise potential. It's not just about getting 500 points plus. Thousands of students are looking for 400 points or more and that's not easy to achieve. We are noticing many more students coming to us with these kinds of expectations, especially now that the easing of the points race has brought some courses, such as commerce and arts, within the realms of possibility for greater numbers of students."

Despite this, the institute is happy to boast about its extra-curricular involvements and pastoral supports. The near-40-year-old college is adopting an increasingly rounded approach to education, in fifth year especially, placing greater emphasis on sports, debating and the Esat Young Scientist competition in particular.

If grind schools are moving into the holistic territories of sports and leisure to offset losses in repeat business, what, ultimately, will set them apart from the State sector in the coming years, apart from average yearly fees of €5,000 plus?

One major difference between private tuition colleges and State schools is the employment status of their staff. A spokeperson from the ASTI conceded that the union does not "actively recruit" members from the grind school sector, and while there are no rules regarding union membership in colleges such as the Institute of Education, industrial relations issues tend to be handled in-house. For this reason, underperforming staff in the private college sector can be removed. The teaching unions in Ireland are a powerful lobby - it's not hard to see why card-carrying members of the State's teaching fraternity would be uncomfortable with the rise of the grind school.

John Morris of the institute is unashamedly critical of the protection of underperforming or absentee teachers in the State system.

"We are ruthless in that sense. We don't waste your time in the Institute. We have very low absenteeism among teachers here. That sort of commitment is not present in other sectors."

However, he admits that the high wages paid to institute teachers is a big factor. "The teachers here enjoy what they do and we have the resources to pay them." At a cost of €5,900 a year and high student numbers it's not hard to see where the money is coming from.

Joe Griffin, principal of Ashfield College spent many years working as a teacher in the State school sector before setting up in Dublin's Templeogue. He believes that the growth of the grind college will continue to be fed because certain types of students are maturing too fast to stay in the tightly policed environment of the conventional school.

"There's been quite a change in Irish students over the last few years, especially the girls," says Griffin, who has 160 students enrolled at fifth, sixth and repeat levels this year, at a cost of €5,900 per year.

"The way the nuns run things doesn't quite suit the psyche of many students coming to us. These girls come in for interview with make-up on - they're ready to get up and out of the system. Our car park is full of students' cars. It's just a sign of the times."

Elisha Dowling of Brookfield College in Tralee, Co Kerry agrees. "Our students like to be treated as adults. They like to call their teachers by their first names. They work hard because our expectations of them are higher."

There's another growing market that might well save the day for the grind schools in the post-points race era - overseas students. About 13 per cent of students enrolling at the Institute of Education in Dublin come from the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and, increasingly, China. These students' parents are prepared to pay the huge cost of their offspring living and studying in Ireland in order to access the CAO, and more importantly, UCAS university entrance system in the UK.

"These students are incredibly motivated," says John Griffin of Ashfield College, where 10 per cent of the student cohort comes from China. "When it comes to maths, they wipe the floor with he Irish. These are China's brightest and best and they are coming to Ireland to access the system in greater numbers every year."

Grinds: A cost/benefit analysis

INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION, LEESON STREET

No of students: 750

Fees: 5,950 per annum

Top Marks 2006: Ten students achieved maximum points; 20 per cent achieved 500 points or more.

BRUCE COLLEGE CORK

No of students: 235

Fees: €5,900 per annum (€4,800 for the junior cycle)

Top Marks 2005: One student achieved maximum points; 20 per cent achieved 495 points or more.

LIMERICK TUTORIAL COLLEGE

No of students: 320

Fees: €5,600

Top Marks 2006: Eight students achieved maximum points; 171 students achieved 500 points or more.

ASHFIELD COLLEGE, TEMPLEOGUE, DUBLIN

No of students: 160

Fees: €5,900 per annum

Top Marks 2004: 12.5 per cent of students achieved more than 500 points. Almost half got more than 400.