Schools' legal action threat forced CAO decision on tables

The threat of legal action from two private schools prompted the Central Applications Office (CAO) move to restrict the release of information leading to the compilation of school league tables.

The CAO confirmed today two "grind schools" contacted them last year to express dissatisfaction with the release of information detailing which secondary schools were sending students to the 43 universities, institutes of technology and other colleges.

According to the CAO, the grind schools believed that because the data released from the universities only shows the secondary school where a candidate first sat their Leaving Cert, the actual number of their students achieving a place in these colleges was far higher than the tables suggested.

At least two colleges "indicated to us that they would pursue legal action" if the information continued to be released in this way, a spokesman for the CAO admitted this afternoon.

The spokesman said a decision was taken in February after communication with the office of the Data Protection Commissioner to restrict the information being made available to third-level colleges.

This morning it was reported that data sent to universities would no longer include which school a pupil attended, arising from fears it might breach data protection legislation.

However, this evening the CAO said it will not make a final decision on the issue until Friday week.

School league tables provide crude data showing where students enrolling in third-level colleges, sat their Leaving Cert exams. The tables are compiled from Freedom of Information requests to the third-level institutions by the media.

A spokesperson for the CAO said the organisation had no difficulty with the release of this information "if the colleges can give us a bona fide reason to hold this information. At the moment they haven't done so".

"At the moment they are using this information for marketing purposes, and it is also being used by the media to build league tables," he added.

Under the 1998 Education Act, the Department of Education can refuse to publish data, such as school examination results, that could lead to the compilation of crude league tables.

The Minister for Education Mr Dempsey is opposed to the league tables in their current form. He has contacted the OECD with a view to learning about school evaluation methods in other countries.

He has had admitted that the current situation is an "unhealthy information vacuum" and that the Government needs to consider how best to make information available on the effectiveness of schools.