Leaving Cert religious education paper asks students to consider moral decision-making

The Leaving Cert religious education and economics papers were completed today.

Leaving Cert students were today asked to consider moral decision-making as part of a fair and balanced religious education paper with plenty of choice, while economics tested the new syllabus for the first time, according to teachers.

This year, students of religious education had to answer one question only from each section, with additional choices within the questions in units two and three.

The questions in unit one on Aristotle's ideas, and on the meaning of life as expressed through myths, were both “fair and balanced”, according to Rachel Dignan, a teacher at Heywood CS in Ballinakill, Co Laois and subject spokesperson with the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland.

Unit two offered a wide variety of choices and gave the student every chance to show off their learning, she added.

The student was only asked to answer two parts out of three in any chosen section,” she said.

The questions on the reliability of evidence for the existence of Jesus of Nazareth might have been demanding.

Another question here asked the student about moral decision-making, which was both “interesting and current”. This question required students to balance the rights of the individual and what was best for the ‘common good', with reference to Irish civil law.

“A nice question for our legal minds of the future,” said Ms Dignan.

Students also would have been very happy with the questions on section three, she added.

The religion and gender section asked students to examine how the ideas or actions of two women impacted on society of their day.

“A broad question, affording the student choice,” said Ms Dignan.

“A question that appealed to me was the question on two pre-Christian rituals adapted by a Christian tradition in Ireland.” 

Students may have had to reflect a little more on this, but the answers were within their grasp.” 

The ordinary level paper also offered students plenty of choice.

"The ‘search for meaning’ was straightforward and in this section there were no surprises,” said Ms Dignan.

“In unit two, it was the same, nothing that would throw a student.” 

The economics written exam took place this morning. This was the first paper based on the new syllabus.

Overall, the paper was very fair with something for everyone, according to Robert Kenny, subject spokesperson with the ASTI.

The short questions were “fair, but challenging enough at the same time”, Mr Kenny said.

It would have been important for students to refer back to the data given to them in the questions, he added.

This year’s paper was also very current, with a vast variety of topics covered including national debt, minimum wage, corporation tax, and bank regulation.

One term that may have confused students was ‘demerit good’ referenced in terms of the cigarette industry, he added.

There was also a good spread of industries represented on the paper, including Netflix, Google, KBC, and the airline industry.

However, while there were plenty of questions from the social and sustainability strand of the course, questions on environmental sustainability were not as well represented.