JUNIOR CERT: Ceart go leor as famous faces turn up for exams

Irish was the only subject on the timetable for Junior Certificate students, but ordinary level candidates had just a single paper to sit and the afternoon off for study or relaxation.

Séamus Ó Fearraigh of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland said the 23,000 ordinary level students may have found the 20-page question and answer booklet daunting.

But, he said, the inclusion of material about Kilkenny hurler Henry Shefflin and US first lady Michelle Obama made it very current. He thought the picture sequences were great and the questions on writing a postcard, blog or letter were fair.

Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland subject spokesman, Robbie Cronin, was very positive about the ordinary level exam, describing it as student-friendly and pitched at the right standard.

Dónal Ó Murchú, spokesman for Comhar na Múinteoirí Gaeilge (Irish Teachers’ Association), spoke very highly of the ordinary level exam, particularly the modern thrust of the pieces about Shefflin and Obama, and an ad for Fota House and Fota Wildlife Park. He said the first higher level paper in the morning was very student-friendly, with a comprehension piece on an event for people using Twitter through Irish.

Mr Ó Fearraigh considered comprehension pieces on the morning’s higher level Paper 1 fine, with the modernistic theme of the ‘Gtuít’ event to be commended. He was also pleased that girl band, Little Mix, were incorporated into the grammar question, being a very current subject for students.

But he felt some of the essay subjects, while simple enough in their own right, would have been tough for most students to fill a page-and-a-half with. The topics included the importance of friends, fashion in young people’s lives and a school visit by a famous past pupil. Another difficulty for students might have been the word for inquisitive used in one of the short story choices, as many students might not have understood it.

Mr Cronin was not pleased with the advanced nature of a question on the message of a higher level Paper 1 comprehension passage about the lesula monkeys in the Congo. While he thought the idea of a piece about the Gtuít was good but the lack of a glossary to explain words like ‘líonrú’ for ‘network’ even caused teachers to scratch their heads.

Mr Cronin was much happier about Paper 2, with good questions on an unseen prose piece about a young couple on a ski trip, and unseen poetry that was not as challenging as in other years and which had an extensive glossary.