The Irish Times recent publication on school league tables highlighted progression of students from schools with DEIS status to third level.
New Cross College is highlighted as the top school in the Dublin 11 area with the highest progression rate: up from 45% to more than 100% last year.
“Looked at over the past six years (2014-2020), the proportion and numbers of students from Deis schools who have secured places in high-points courses and colleges has increased from 2,410 (24.2 per cent) to 3,433 (32.7 per cent) in 2020.
Over 400 of that increase occurred in 2020, indicating that Deis schools benefitted significantly from the calculated grades process.
The total number of Deis students who secured places in high-points programmes in 2020 exceeded by 181 the numbers who did so from fee-paying schools.
This is not quite the revolution it may seem, and significant differences persist in educational achievements between students in Deis and non-Deis schools, with close to three times as many students (19.3 per cent) attending Deis schools as do those in fee-paying schools (7 per cent).
Mercy College in Inchicore had an overall progression rate of 69 per cent in 2019. This increased to 113 per cent in 2020.
Other similar examples include New Cross College in Finglas increasing from 45 to 160%.
In Dublin 24 (Tallaght and Jobstown), significantly higher numbers have gone on to third-level this year. At Nagle Community College in Cork, third-level progression has risen from 29 to 50 per cent.
Such data indicates beyond refute that the investment in Deis schools since the inception of the programme in 2005 is leading to a major increase in progression to college through both direct entry after the Leaving Cert and through FE routes.
It is also clear that 2020 saw an increase in Deis schools’ success rates, which would give rise to the question of how to maintain these advances when the exam system moves back to the traditional Leaving Cert exams as the sole criteria for the allocation of places”.