College principal attacks 'nonsense' league tables (From Warrington Guardian)

College principal attacks 'nonsense' league tables

REASEHEATH College has hit out at the Department for Education and Skills' league tables for misrepresenting colleges which concentrate on vocational training.

The Nantwich-based college is supporting a claim made this week by the Association of Colleges (AoC) that the tables are virtually meaningless for further education institutions which cater for non-A Level courses.

The league tables score colleges and secondary schools according to the number of A Level points gained, but disregard other qualifications, such as National Diplomas, Higher National Diplomas and NVQs.

This puts specialist colleges like Reaseheath at a significant disadvantage, and the statistics used in last week's league tables were based on the achievements of just 14 students out of a total of 6,500 full and part time learners.

Principal Meredydd David said: "Reaseheath is nationally and internationally accepted as a leading land-based college.

"The number of students successfully gaining industry recognised qualifications with us is growing year upon year, so it is a nonsense for us to appear low in the tables.

"It gives a false impression to members of the public, who may take the low number of A Levels achieved as a reflection of the college's overall success."

The government has announced plans to change the system so that it recognises the progress made by students across all the courses they take.

The new system, which will be introduced in 2006, will better reflect the range of student achievements at colleges such as Reaseheath.

The college was named as one of the top land-based colleges in the country in 2002, and in the same year was among the top ten of all further education colleges inspected by OFSTED.

Reaseheath is also the only Cheshire college to appear on the education watchdog's new internet service listing particularly successful institutions, and is the only land-based centre in the country to make that list.

Judith Norrington, the AoC's director of learning and quality, said: "We have long argued that these tables are virtually meaningless for those further education colleges with mixed provision.

"Only a small part of their learning programme is counted, so it is no surprise there are some apparently low scores."