THE Principal of a Co Donegal school today questioned school league tables – saying they fail to accurately show how well an institution is doing.
Anne McHugh, principal at Errigal College hit back today in a letter to the Irish Times which published the list last week.
She said she awaited each year’s list with “dread” knowing it would be inaccurate.
She wrote today: “Our school conducts our enrolment in November each year for prospective students. We are one of four second-level schools in Letterkenny and we seek students from over 20 primary schools. You can appreciate I am sure how competitive our enrolment situation is. You will also appreciate how I read your School League Tables with dread each November just when students are choosing schools.
“Our position in the league table is inaccurate, as pointed out by Noel Gildea, Principal of Riversdale Community College. (December 2nd). We too provide an examination centre for a large number of adult education students; in our case this year 25 of the 72 you said did the Leaving Certificate were Adult Education students. This gave our school a figure of 21 per cent progressing to third-level. Excluding those 25 students, Errigal College had 47 students who did the Leaving Certificate and a progression rate of 32 per cent.
“This has clearly skewed the percentage attributed to our school which does not include two students who are studying abroad, one in university in Poland and one in Belgium.”
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