Entry system puts students ‘constantly under strain’

PRESSURE to do well in the Leaving Certificate is putting constant stress on teenagers focused on the points race for college, say researchers who have tracked students from first year to the end of school.

The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) said many young people are critical of the almost complete reliance on the final exams as the only assessment of their performance.

Its report will take centre stage in the debate on how to change college entry systems and reduce emphasis on the exams to measure students’ abilities after 14 years at school.

The topic is the theme of a conference hosted by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment and Higher Education Authority today.

The findings are from the last two reports of the ESRI’s work with more than 900 students who started second-level education at 12 schools a decade ago. The authors found that the Leaving Certificate deeply influences student experiences of fifth and sixth year.

Study authors Emer Smyth, Joanne Banks and Emma Calvert wrote: “On making the transition to senior cycle, young people report an escalation of demands and more challenging schoolwork, highlighting a significant gap in standards between junior and senior cycle. Although finding many of their subjects (particularly optional subjects) interesting and useful, they emphasise the significant amount of material to be covered across the subjects they study.”

As levels of stress further escalated in sixth year, 40% of female students and almost one in three boys spent at least four hours a night on homework and study.

Almost half of the students took grinds in their final year. The numbers doing so were much higher among those from better-off backgrounds.

The significant implications of performance in the Leaving Certificate for access to education after school, training and employment are very clear to those students involved.

“Many report significant levels of stress and feeling ‘constantly under strain’ during sixth year, with these stress levels much higher among female than male students,” the report said.

It said stress is further fuelled for those who devote more time to study at the expense of social and extra-curricular activities.

*Transition or Transaction? — a conference on moving from second-level to third-level education will streamed live from 8.30am today at www.transition.ie