THE FACT OF THE MATTER
BY PAUL HOPKINS
So, here we are and another year. And a week plus into it. A time that, 50 plus years on, still makes me break out in a cold sweat. That realisation that I just haven’t put enough into it, enough preparation to sit a good Leaving Cert and pass with flying colours.
For many, just the thought of the exams can send similar shivers down their spines and invoke unrequested memories of Tuesday evenings idly staring at notes for geometry. It’s a rite of passage for a young person, a clear portal through which we must all step to allegedly move into adulthood.
But, one wonders, is the Leaving Cert fit for purpose, or is it a relic of another era when technology meant having pens that didn’t explode in your hand and ink everywhere?
The Leaving consists of six subjects, with equal weight given to each, and is graded out of 100 (and 125 for higher maths) in each subject, with a maximum score of 625 points. Since last year, the Leaving has undergone significant changes – some argue, long overdue – with each subject becoming a mix of both continuous assessment and a final exam.
How many points students score determines which college course they are eligible for. Courses of greater difficulty and/or demand require higher points to get in. The scoring ‘system’ allows students to pretty accurately predict the points needed for a course, based on previous years.
Despite calls down the years for a radical overhaul – a total ongoing assessment of pupils over the two years – one could argue that the Leaving Cert system of standardised assessment can be seen as an advantage. That the assessment is the same for every student allows for a fair way to judge them. All students are assessed by the same metric, regardless of what school they went to or what subjects they studied. The standardised assessment makes it easy for universities to segregate students. There is no interview process for getting into college in Ireland. It all comes down to how many points scored in one single set of exams. If a student scores enough points, they get into their desired course.
On the downside, the Leaving system has a narrow focus on purely academic achievement. Colleges base their selection of students for particular courses solely on the number of points they get. This metric can become all-consuming for students who, unfortunately, may neglect other aspects of their lives. While the Leaving Cert is a good measure of IQ and conscientiousness, I would argue it fails to consider a student’s ability in creativity, empathy, emotional intelligence, and other skills that are equally essential in life. Some students who may excel in real-life social scenarios may not score as well in the exam, while others who lack those vital skills may perform better.
Furthermore, the Leaving Cert can be detrimental to students who do not excel academically. Written exams may not be the forte of some students, but unfortunately, this is not taken into account during college admissions.
Still, there is no doubting the pressure on this year’s 66,000 young shoulders to perform well.
In the coming years of their lives, hopefully, there will be a place for all of our young people regardless of their Leaving Cert outcome. And, again, the students who emerge with the best results won’t necessarily be the most successful nor even the happiest in life.
I can attest now that we definitely don’t learn in school or college all we need to know to get through life, so let’s not over-egg the Leaving Cert. I just about scraped through, went on to do a science degree but ended up in the now-so-utterly changed world of newspapers and discovered that, if you find a job that you enjoy, you’ll never work a day in your life.
The philosopher Alan Watts said that we see happiness as always depending on something expected in the future, instead of being happy in the now. This is fostered during our school years and is something that becomes an undeniable fabric of the way we live and think our whole lives. We’re constantly moving forward to some goal that’s just out of reach.
Trust me and don’t feel guilty if you do not know at 18 what you want to do with your life. Some of the most interesting people I know thought similarly. The Leaving Cert is not the end of the world. There’s always a Plan B: a good trade or, perhaps, just the University of Life …
