Obituaries

Ray Kearns obituary: Founder of Ireland’s first grind school

‘A boring teacher is a bad teacher,’ was the motto of businessman and educator

Ray Kearns: founder of the Institute of Education and Portobello College. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons

Thu Apr 7 2022 - 14:54

Born: November 19th, 1930 Died: April 1st, 2022

Ray Kearns, teacher and founder of the Institute of Education, has died aged 91. Despite leaving school at 16, he dedicated his life to education and started a trend for exam-focused tuition that would spawn many imitators.

He was born in Edmondstown near Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon, the seventh of nine children. His father, Patrick, was a farmer, and nine-year-old Ray made a brief foray into farming when he decided to raise ducks. With the determination he would become known for, he saved 10 pennies and visited 14 houses in search of a duck. He secured several duck eggs, put them under a clocking hen and finally got his ducklings.

His mother, Ellen, was a primary school teacher and had the distinction of being taught Maths by future taoiseach and president Éamon de Valera when she studied teacher training at Carysfort College.

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Learning came easily to her seventh child, and Ray won a scholarship to attend St Nathy’s College in the town. However, he did not enjoy boarding school life and left for a job with CIÉ after the Inter Cert. His first job was at Boyle train station, and with each future posting he would move a step closer to Dublin.

His final posting was at CIÉ’s North Wall depot. Working conditions were tough and he realised he wanted more from life. He studied for the Leaving Certificate while working and won a place in UCD to study arts. He went to college by day and worked by night to pay his fees.

One of his highlights was shaking the hand of John F Kennedy when he met him on the US presidential election campaign trail

He missed out on the social side of college and did not really feel like he belonged until he was elected president of the student council. “I now was a full student of University College Dublin,” he recalled in a video made to mark his 80th birthday.

At this stage, love had blossomed between him and young Galway woman, Bríd Finn. When he won a scholarship to do a master’s in new mathematics at the University of Pittsburgh, they got married and she accompanied him to the US. One of his highlights was shaking the hand of John F Kennedy when he met him on the US presidential election campaign trail.

First teaching job

His first teaching job was at St James’ Street CBS, which was followed by his appointment as senior mathematics master at Gonzaga College in 1961. He began offering private maths tuition to students and demand quickly grew. In 1969 he started the Institute of Education on Leeson Street with 10 students, providing extra tuition outside school hours.

At the heart of it all was his love of teaching. People who were his students decades ago spoke this week of the impact Kearns had made on them

Career guidance counsellor and Irish Times columnist Brian Mooney first met him when he studied Latin at the institute in the early 1970s. “He was there every evening in the foyer, greeting everyone, so friendly and welcoming,” Mooney said.

He added that Kearns showed great vision when he identified a gap in the market. “He developed a grind school where you could go in for the subject where you had a bad teacher and you could do well in that. The institute was there for donkeys’ years before anyone tried to emulate it.”

By the mid-1980s he had moved to a bigger building across the road and started running day courses. Not everyone liked the emergence of a grinds school run by a private provider, and teaching unions were critical of the development. But he was unapologetic, saying he did not create the points system – he was just helping students to maximise their potential and his plan was always to “get the very best teachers, pay them the very best money to give the very best tuition”.

But at the heart of it all was his love of teaching. People who were his students decades ago spoke this week of the impact Kearns had made on them. Former colleague Denis Creaven recalled the first piece of advice he received from Kearns. “He said: remember Denis, a boring teacher is a bad teacher.”

Tough businessman

Mooney said Ray Kearns was a tough businessman but there was another side to him. As a guidance counsellor, he occasionally sought help from Ray Kearns for students who were suffering hardship. They were always looked after. “Ray did that sort of thing all over the place. He was a deeply caring person.”

As colleges struggled to meet the demand for places, Kearns saw another opportunity and opened the private third-level Portobello College in 1989

This was echoed by Creaven. “There are doctors and teachers and social workers walking around this town who wouldn’t be where they are today without his generosity.”

As colleges struggled to meet the demand for places, Kearns saw another opportunity and opened the private third-level Portobello College in 1989. The introduction of fee-free third-level education in the mid-1990s dealt a blow to the college but luck was on his side when US education provider Kaplan, which owned Dublin Business School, bought the business in 2007. He was relieved to return to the Institute of Education just before the recession hit. His family say he never really retired from the institute, which is now run by his son Peter and daughter, Una.

He spent his later years travelling widely with Bríd, and enjoying time with his grandchildren and his wide group of friends. He contracted Covid-19 in March but recovered. He died from underlying health conditions on April 1st.

Kearns is survived by his wife, Bríd; his children, Raymond, Edward, Andrew, Peter and Una; and his extended family.

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