ASTI - Ireland's main second level teachers union

The ASTI does not represent grinds schools for the following reasons: 

• Grinds schools are only available to those who can afford to pay their fees.
• Grinds schools focus on exam techniques and the cramming of information, rather than on a holistic education which values the whole person.
• Grinds schools set up narrow, non-educational goals for students and by so doing may make the broader educational task of the ordinary school impossible to achieve.
• Grinds schools offer 'crash courses' which merely repeat what is offered in ordinary schools.
• Grind schools promote a false impression that pupils need to attend a grinds school in order to achieve their potential. There is no evidence for this.