Save the Junior Cert and make savings at very expensive university level

THE attack by Dr Florence Craven on the Junior Certificate (Letters, November 9) defies logic. She begins by stating that it “serves no practical purpose”.

The Junior Cert provides the first objective standard by which thousands of students have some measure of their abilities in a wide range of subjects.

It provides a focus for study mid way through the secondary school system. It provides the first run at actually sitting

exams in a high pressure situation. This will stand to students when they sit Leaving Cert and third-level exams.

It teaches time management, discipline and focus, without which students will drift aimlessly as they generally do without the incentive of having a serious exam at year’s end.

Students work hardest in the Junior and Leaving Cert years for this very reason. Scrapping the Junior Cert will jeopardise the educational standards we are trying to maintain. It is easy to criticise what is there, but it is very difficult to replace it with a system that would be superior and as fair and objective.

The Government suggestion that it be scrapped to save €30m is equally mindless. I suggest they start at the very expensive university level, where they will find whole departments whose very existence serves “no practical purpose.”

James McGrath

Birchgrove

Hollyford

Co Tipperary