Though flawed, points system still best option

I DISAGREE with the views expressed by Professor Paul Finucane regarding medical school admission (Opinion, September 5).

Education Minister Mary Hanafin’s proposal to introduce an aptitude test, which Prof Finucane welcomes, is based on two false assumptions which owe more to middle-class parental angst than to a rigorous assessment of a perceived problem.

The first is a widely held, though flawed belief that a select group of teenagers exhibit a range of aptitudes undiscovered by the Leaving Certificate that will result in them becoming ‘good doctors’ some 10-15 years later.