Should league tables be abolished?

Nearly 10 years after they were first published, league tables in Welsh secondary schools are to abolished

The announcement - which follows a similar move in Northern Ireland - was made on Friday by Welsh Education Minister Jane Davidson.

She described the practice as 'divisive' and an 'unnecessary burden'.

While teaching unions have welcomed the move, others have said the abolition is pointless as newspapers are still free to publish a table of results in order of performance.

In England there are no plans to scrap the tables. In fact, earlier this week BBC News Online revealed that they were to be extended to include primary special schools.

Is the Welsh Assembly right? Are league tables divisive? And should England and Scotland now follow suit?

This debate is now closed. Read a selection of your comments below.

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Your reaction

Finally the Welsh teachers can stop worrying about league table results and put all their effort into what they really want to do: educating young people

Leo, Sweden

Witholding league table information is typical socialist claptrap, aided and abetted in this instance by the dinosaurs that run the teaching unions. The pretence that every pupil and every school can be "equal" is palpable nonsense, merely a cover for laziness and a celebration of failure.
David K, England

It is necessary to measure to improve. The important measurement is the improvement on past performance not just maintaining the standard. This is where teachers should be rewarded; they have the opportunity to maximise the potential of all our children
Robert, UK

League tables are misleading as a measure of a schools performance. If all schools were providing the best quality education, someone would still be bottom. If all schools were providing sub-standard education, someone would still be top. They only show the relative performance of schools rather than an absolute measure of performance. There may be many reasons for these differences other than the simplistic conclusion that one is 'better' or 'worse' than another. They were only introduced by the Tory government as a device to shift the blame for the effects of spending cuts onto the schools themselves. It's time they went.
Mick B, UK

Why is this building being considered in a prime land area, surrounded by hotels and leisure facilities. Any building should be in the administrative area of the Civic Centre
Phil Daw, wales - uk

Yes, we do need an Assembly if only to show that this is a new start for Wales. Eventually I hope we get a parliament similar to Scotland and this building is not just for politicians - its a symbol for Wales of the right to govern its own affairs
Tony, Newport,Wales

Yes, we do need an Assembly if only to show that this is a new start for Wales. Eventually I hope we get a parliament similar to Scotland and this building is not just for politicians - its a symbol for Wales of the right to govern its own affairs
Tony, Newport,Wales

League tables should be abolished thoughout the whole country. By emphasising the differences between schools it only widens the gap, as parents of cleverer students choose 'better' schools for their children. Also, it is a fact that there are going to be differences between areas. In more prosperous areas parents can afford private tutition, text books and past papers for their children, while in less well off areas parents may not be able to provide this, and children are more likely to be encouraged to leave school and start working as soon as possible. This does not mean that the same children would gain different results if they swapped schools.
Fay, UK

If they can find a way to accurately measure the quality of education a school offers, rather than the number of exam passes a group of individuals get then fine - go for it. Until then, let the reputation of the school speak for itself, as it always has done.
Helen, UK

If they can find a way to accurately measure the quality of education a school offers, rather than the number of exam passes a group of individuals get then fine - go for it

Helen, UK

The news item on Friday featured a local comprehensive school - Bedwellty. I have become very concerned that this school is fast becoming a 'sink' school because too many parents are exercising their right to send their children to other schools. This is all very well if parents can afford to pay the transport costs for hiring a mini-bus or, perhaps, take their children by car. The catchment area for Bedwellty has got a lot of low-income families. For them, there is no choice. I think that it is a sad state of affairs when Bedwellty school, which enjoyed such a high reputation in the past, is now having to take on rejects from other schools who won't have them because it will prejudice their position in the tables.
Joyce Jones, Wales

Let's accept that school league tables do measure the quality of a school, for the purpose of argument. They allow parents to send their children to the better schools. But some children must still attend the poorer schools, as there are not enough places for all children in the top school. So, we have some children who not only attend a poorer school but are also formally stigmatised for doing so. On the whole, what good does this do? As for the argument that they can be used to improve school standards, maybe so. But this can be done with much more comprehensive and detailed statistics at a governmental level, rather than the simplistic tables that are currently published. As for parent choice, some children must still attend the poorer schools, so allow choice simply results in many parents' choices being frustrated, in a manner that has serious long term consequences. And anyway, since when was education provision about parents? Education is not a business (or shouldn't be) and cannot be run in the interests of the economic consumers. Both teachers and children should be paramount, with parents a minor, peripheral voice.
Andrew Bartlett, UK

Any time I see a legislature suppressing information, I think that someone has something to hide

John Livesey, USA

Firstly, in response to Andrew Bartlett, I say that schools are like a business, but with the most important consumers - pupils. Secondly, having left school only 3 years ago, I am happy to see the league tables go. I went to a school that was always at the top of these tables, and I passed all of my exams well to help keep it there. So, although the school did well by me, it was not always the case. The rector, in particular, was concerned about the position in these tables, and as a result many pupils who were not quite so academic were not encouraged to the same extent, nor were they made to feel like the school was proud to have them. This was not done overtly, it was something only those of us who attended the school can recognise. League tables? Well done Wales.
Christine, UK

The problem is not with league tables but how they are measured ... a similar problem is prevalent in the health service - how to rate performance when there are a near infinite number of factors involved. Some sort of check needs to be made on performance but how do you convince a doctor to help a patient with a poor chance of survival when the result will more than likely adversely affect both them and their hospital. What motivation is there for skilled teachers to move to areas of greatest need when all they will face unending criticism despite their best efforts to fight poverty, broken / unstable families and disruptive pupils. Parents and the government must realize that there is no simple scale of best school worse school and this action is a positive step towards correcting their poor attitude. Schools should be compared with nothing but their own past performance.
Chris, UK

Finally the Welsh teachers can stop worrying about league table results and put all their effort into what they really want to do - educating young people.
Leo, Sweden

Any time I see a legislature suppressing information, I think that someone has something to hide. I think it's ironic that the Welsh voted albeit by a hair's breadth, for their own legislature, and now they have to suffer a home-grown culture of secrecy and concealment.
Jon Livesey, USA

League tables are a good idea as they allow parents to choose between schools. They also enable teachers, governors, educationalists and politicians to discover which type of school performs better than others and therefore which schools should be copied in their methods and styles of teaching. Abolishing league tables is a backwards step, that will help poor teachers to keep their jobs but will not help the young people in our schools in any way whatsoever.
W James, UK

No parent in their right mind accepts that abolition of league tables enables them to make better informed decisions as to where their child should be educated

Tony Crutcher, Wales

If the measure of performance causes schools to do things that are not beneficial to a child's education, or the measure does not reflect the right qualities then CHANGE the measure. Do not abandon it. Or should we also abandon children's exams because they cause some to cheat or do not reflect others hidden talents. This is the wrong move. Head back in sand.
Michael Waite, Wales

No parent in their right mind accepts that abolition of league tables enables them to make better informed decisions as to where their child should be educated. The more information you have about a school the better decision you can make for your child's education. This is nothing more than the Labour Party putting teacher unions before the interests of my child's education.
Tony Crutcher, Wales

League tables should be abolished and all schools be brought up to similar standards. This will free up a lot of the teachers' time in the lessons to teach. Equal invest- ment in all schools would do away with the need to impose this burden on our teachers. I have not studied league tables to choose the schools for my children. A school's reputation goes before it, making league tables unnecessary.
Steve Fuller, England

School league tables should be abolished everywhere in the UK. Teachers are committing suicide because of this current trend for statistics rather than people.
P Stephan, England

League tables, despite their obvious limitations, do show parents (and the public) the relative position of schools in terms of exams results. Until other measures of school performance are devised we should stay with the present system. Will the Welsh Assembly now abolish league position of Welsh football teams?
John Hart, Wales

I do not agree. It was made against a survey of teachers and parents. Where did this survey take place, and with who? No one should be afraid of being measured in their employment. It is only right that people should be able to form a balanced opinion of the situation.
GN Brown, Anglesey

League tables are a menace to our schools and especially to our young people. Too many schools play the system - putting pupils into a lower level GCSE paper as they more likely to pass this and obtain a B or C grade. All league tables have done is to lower standards to a common denominator. Thank goodness they have been abolished.
Jan Chivers, Barry near Cardiff

I am delighted to see the abolition of the league tables in Wales, they were never a true reflection of the performance of individual schools and the contribution they make to their individual communities. Parents often chose to move their children to schools outside their area to the detriment of the child on the basis of the league tables which were unfair.
Vanessa Griffin, Wales