Students should have say in changing points system

THE reduction of two years of effort by a Leaving Cert student, across a broad spectrum of subjects, to a single CAO points figure is a crude system — it can never reflect the diversity of their talents and achievements.

Furthermore, the widening gulf between the highest scorers and the lowest in the system, along with all the associated publicity, should be of grave concern to all.

The points system primarily serves the third-level sector. It is an objective system and colleges don’t have to manage their own admissions system other than coming up with the number of points for entry to each course and the matriculation requirements followed by a number of rounds of offers.