The business of high points

THE EDUCATION PROFILE: RAY KEARNS FOUNDER OF THE INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION, DUBLINRay Kearns, founder of Dublin's Institute of Education, is both an educator and a hugely successful businessman. Critics may carp about the "grinds culture" but the institute remains the market leader, writes  GRÁINNE FALLER

NOW in his mid-70s , Ray Kearns is still very much the driving force behind the State's largest, most successful grind school.

He has personally recruited many of the institute's talented group of teachers. He is also the one who will move swiftly to remove any under-performing teacher, should they fail to match up. Kearns also likes to spread the message about the institute, ringing journalists regularly and with great enthusiasm to spread the good news about his school.

He abhors the term "grind school". Says one colleague: "The term rankles with the teacher within him. Kearns is a teacher first; he also happens to be a very successful businessman.''

The forthcoming publication of the annual school league tables is a huge moment for Kearns. The old league tables, based on a simple head-count of pupils in each university, provided acres of free publicity for the institute. Invariably, the school - by virtue of its sheer numbers - would top the chart.

The most recent Irish Timesfeeder school list - which tracked the percentage of pupils going on to college - was less kind to the Institute, placing it in the middle order. About 65 per cent of the institute's 1,000 students went on to third level, putting it firmly in the middle of the pack rather than way out in front.

In truth, the list has done little to dent public confidence in "the institute" as it is widely known. Many parents are prepared to pay for a no-frills education - the entire focus here is on the essential business of Leaving Cert points.

Awkward questions may be raised about the grinds culture and the limited nature of the school experience in the institute - there are few extra-curricular activities - but parents appear unconcerned. The institute does exactly what it says on the tin - it delivers strong Leaving Cert results for most students.

Teacher unions and other educationalists may snipe but Kearns knows the value of those photos featuring his students who have gained the magic 600 Leaving Cert points. It helps to re-enforce his familiar mantra - great teachers and good pupils get great results.

The institute is a phenomenon in Irish education. These days, palm-scanning technology tracks the attendance of hundreds of students in large, lecture-style classes. At parent-teacher meetings, the teachers have photos of each student in a folder to ensure they are talking about the right pupil. Performance and results pressure is a part of the job and some teachers will encounter as many as 600 Leaving Cert students in any given year.

While Kearns has now handed the day-to-day running of the institute over to his son Peter, he recruited many of the teachers currently there, and still takes a keen interest. Acknowledged as a great judge of talent, he kept his ear to the ground, quizzing students and colleagues about the best teachers around. He pursued potential employees with gusto. Some teachers, having rebuffed his advances, found themselves on the receiving end of an annual phone call asking them to reconsider. He offers money that is well beyond what the State can offer. "Certainly a lot of teachers have paid for their house and maybe a second out of it," one colleague said. "It allows a lifestyle you could never afford otherwise."

Students are important judges of whether a teacher is succeeding in the institute. In the first two weeks of the year, they sample different subjects and teachers before settling on the timetable and teachers that suit them. "If a teacher is left with half a dozen students in their class, something's wrong," a former employee said.

"He'd be passing in the corridors, full of bonhomie when students came out of class. He'd stop to chat to them and you'd know he'd be asking about you," another teacher said. "If comments ever got too negative, Ray would be greatly concerned."

"If someone wasn't working out after a few days, there would be no inquisition and no hall of appeal. They were just gone," one peer recalled.

About 5,000 students pass through its doors every year. About 1,000 are repeat and first-time Leaving Cert students, paying €6,950 for a year of full-time tuition. Others pay €845 for evening and Saturday classes in a single subject.

Many students attend the Junior and Leaving Cert Christmas and Easter revision courses, where hundreds of students pay upwards of €240 per subject. Added to that are international students and fifth-year students who have shunned the State school system in favour of what Kearns offers. Many have tried to emulate the model but none with such a spectacular outcome.

SUCH SUCCESS for Kearns was far from pre-ordained. Born to a farmer and a teacher in Ballaghaderreen, young Kearns, despite excelling academically, left school at the age of 16. He got a job with CIÉ and worked on the railways while studying for his Leaving Cert and a maths degree at night.

A number of scholarships for postgraduate study in the US followed, and when Kearns returned to Ireland in 1963, he landed a plum job as senior maths master in Gonzaga. At the time, a type of maths known as New Maths was about to be introduced to the Leaving Cert syllabus. Few knew anything about it apart from Kearns who, thanks to his study in the US, then became the national expert.

In a glimmer of what was to come, Kearns set up classes for students and teachers who wished to learn about New Maths on the corner of Earlsfort Terrace and Stephens Green. Classes were well-attended and Kearns was an excellent teacher. From there, he spotted the gap in the market for Leaving Cert grinds and evening classes, and in 1969 he set up the Institute of Education.

A cautious entrepreneur, he retained his position in Gonzaga for quite some time after founding the institute. With the advent of the CAO points system in the late 1970s, Kearns stuck his neck out and borrowed the £100,000 he needed to buy the buildings that now house the institute. "He had many sleepless nights over that," a colleague said. "But he took the plunge and opened the sixth-form college in 1979."

Now in direct competition with the State sector, the institutes overt emphasis on exam performance and results began to captivate students and parents, while scandalising the educational establishment.

A Fianna Fáil man - some say he is lost to politics - Kearns has oodles of charm and charisma. "You talk to him in the staff room and you'd come out thinking that Ray Kearns is your best friend," said one former employee. A pinch of salt wouldn't go amiss.

"The truth is that he probably wouldnt remember your name a week after youre dead and buried," another colleague said.

A foray into third-level education in the form of Portobello College was a less successful venture. Described as a "money pit" by one contemporary, last August Kearns sold Portobello College to Dublin Business School,which is owned by Kaplan Inc, a subsidiary of the Washington Post company. He still owns Richmond house and the Portobello buildings however and is currently leasing those to Kaplan. He also has other property interests in the surrounding Portobello area.

He's great company according to people who socialise with him and is a generous but quiet philanthropist. "I wouldn't be surprised if there are a number of kids studying for free in the institute every year," one business rival commented. "He's generous. He gives money to causes, but you wouldn't know it. He keeps it quiet." There are also stories of a real sense of mischief, a man who enjoys throwing the cat among the pigeons to see what will happen.

While Kearns is well-liked by colleagues and admired by rivals, there is a very definite divide between the public persona and the private man.

"At the back of it all, he and his wife are quiet, decent, country people," said a long-time colleague. "He is very family-focused and is extremely private behind that front. When he comes home, the door closes on the outside world and I don't think anyone ever gets in behind it."

The word on the web

"There is not a scrap of evidence that pupils of a given academic ability will do better if they attend a grinds schools rather than an ordinary second-level school - John White ASTI

If schools were running a tight ship, we'd close in the morning. We took something that is free and made it better. People are willing to pay for it. It's like going to the Blackrock Clinic or engaging a good barrister - it costs money, but it does the trick - John Morris, the Institute of Education

It is made EXTREMELY clear by a lot of the teachers (in a very humorous way as well) that just sitting in there wont suddenly cause you to have an epiphany and you will be the master of all subjects. It is work. Incredibly hard work. Most teachers have already told us that they are giving tests next week - www.boards.ie

There's no doubt they do try to churn out as many high-points students as they can, but they actually do take on such a vast amount of people that the results vary a lot. - www.boards.ie

The institute isnt any better or worse than schools around the country - I mean look at the amount of A1s Cork produced this year - but they do have a higher proportion of really good teachers than your average secondary school. Theres no denying that. - www.boards.ie

I would think long and hard before going to the institute or a similar establishment. Im not from a family that can afford such things and I attended a public school for the six years of my secondary education. I got 565 points in my leaving cert, a guy in my year got 590 and last year a guy got 600. The institute is not a fail safe way of gaining enormous points - www.boards.ie