Madam, - The primary role of parents in children's education has long been recognised. Since the foundation of this State, leaders of Church and State have at various times articulated such a role for parents and the subsidiarity of the school in the education process has been emphasised.
Over the past 20 years in particular, parents through the National Parents Councils (primary and post-primary) have been vocal in expressing their primacy over the school, which is there merely to help parents in their educative role.
The rationale for this is clear. Education research literature from various Western countries, including Britain and the US, is replete with evidence that parental attitudes to education and learning is the single most powerful determinant of a child's school attainment. Other influences such as social class, home background, size of family, pupils' intelligence, school facilities, school curriculum, quality of teaching and schools' academic records are important, but pale in comparison with parental attitudes and interest, which tend to correlate with socio-economic status.
What implication does this have for the publication of school league tables? In light of the overwhelming evidence on the disproportionate importance of parental attitudes in deciding children's school attainment, attempts by parents to compare schools using league tables or school reports should be made with caution.
Logically, any highlighted differences between schools using school reports or crude league tables would serve more to underline differing parental attitudes to education than any other differences, including quality of teaching in compared schools.
Would the National Parents Councils not therefore serve parents better by embarking on a crusade to educate them on the critical role they play in deciding their children's school attainment through the dissemination of positive attitudes to schools and education generally?
Surely this approach would benefit pupils throughout the country. Clamouring for the publication of league tables to identify weak or ineffective schools is a useless exercise when quality of school provision is just one factor - and not the most important one - in determining a child's school attainment, which is mostly in the gift of the parents. - Yours, etc,
PJ McDERMOTT,
Sheeaune,
Westport,
Co Mayo.