Well-heeled parents are gaming the State exam system through grinds

MORE than half of the 120,967 students who yesterday commenced the torturous rite of passage that is the Irish State examinations, will be doing so on the back of privately funded additional tuition.

As they sweat it out in exam halls throughout the country – in suitably hot and humid exam weather of course – at home, their parents will be totting up the costs of so-called ‘free education’ in Ireland.

In some, mostly private schools, almost 100pc of students will have been pummelled through this burgeoning and expensive grind system.

It has become the norm for many parents to spend around the cost of a new car on the overall cost of funding their child’s secondary education.

Their goal is to secure a coveted place on one of the more prestigious and traditional third-level college courses. Ironically, these college places are funded by the State.

In effect, this means that there is no level playing field to get into college. Well-heeled parents are effectively gaming the system to benefit their offspring.

You could argue that they are within their rights to spend their own money as they see fit. The sum of €3,000 a year would not be uncommon for part-time additional tuition, particularly in maths and Irish.

However, the other side of that argument is that those children who do not have such advantages are being squeezed out. Funding such private tuition, starting at between €30-€50 an hour, is out of reach for many. This is innately unfair.

It does raise the question of the quality of teaching in Irish schools in the first place. Why are so many grinds required? Are school’s falling down on the job because they know that parents have deep pockets and high ambitions? Does it just amount to a money-making racket?

Dedicated and very competent teachers must find the volume of private tuition irritating at best.

However, it must be quite a bonus for poor teachers who don’t need to exert themselves to any great degree at all.

And it is a personal financial bonanza for those teachers who give grinds.

Many schools roll out their ‘percentage of students who progress to third-level education’ figures as a marketing tool to prospective parents.

However, given the volume of students receiving such additional tuition, one would have to question what percentage the school is actually contributing to such progression rates in the first place.

The measure of a good school, offering a rounded education, amounts to more than the number of students who go on to complete a third-level module at a particular college.

The big issue here is the growing ambition of misguided parents who are micromanaging their children’s lives and future career choices to suit their own outdated aspirations.

President of the University of Limerick Dr Des Fitzgerald said this week that many parents exert too much influence over the choice of college courses that their children follow. He cited the fact many parents are out of date with their knowledge of the new areas of work such as artificial intelligence, automation and robotics.

He said that careers in Stem subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths) offer the best graduate earnings and the greatest job prospects.

And he is so right. Many parents are hung up on the traditional professions, particularly law and medicine, and nothing less will do – whether their child has the skills or indeed temperament for such a career.

Health Professions Admission Test (HPAT) intensive grinds, to help students secure a place in undergraduate medicine, are hugely popular today and available throughout the country.

Two-week Easter grind courses are now the norm.

EVEN the summer months are not sacred from the dreaded grind courses. Cramming courses now take place during the month of August before you even commence the two-year Leaving Certificate cycle.

At the other end of the scale, in both price and pressure terms, are the full-time grind schools. Some of these are residential and predictably cost a small fortune, starting at around €8,000 a year.

Many are designed for those who are repeat Leaving Certificate students. I can only imagine how grim and pressured it must be to undertake the gruelling LC course for a second time.

This grind treadmill, along with a full school day and what I understand is an average of around four hours homework a night, leaves young people with no leisure time whatsoever.

No wonder so many second-level students are stressed and wheyfaced, carrying around the burden of parental ambition on their young shoulders.

It is hardly surprising that we have major mental health issues among our young people as they buckle under the strain.

I wonder what would happen if all grind schools stopped tomorrow. Would the bottom fall out of the world of Irish education? I don’t think so.

Just imagine if all of that extra money was instead used to give children back their childhood.

Would we have a lot of happy and well adjusted children on our hands? Most probably is the resounding answer.

Privately funded tuition means there is no level playing field to get into college... this is innately unfair. It does raise the question of the quality of teaching in schools in the first place