Art students ‘relying on internet for images’

Students in most schools may be relying on images from internet search engines to come up with preparatory work for their design and craftwork projects in Leaving Certificate art, examiners have found.

The subject was taken by 10,296 students last year, and a chief examiner’s report on the exams points to strengths and weaknesses identified by markers.

One of three practical components requires students to either come up with a design proposal for, or to design and make, a craftwork. This is worth one quarter of marks towards the final grade in art. Almost 90% of 2013 students took the five-hour craftwork option to design and make any one of a range of items. The most popular were posters, block printing, modelling, pottery, puppetry, calligraphy, batik, and pottery.