CAO reform - System does not add up

WHEN the Central Applications Office (CAO) was introduced in 1977 there were only 69 courses at just five colleges, and there were fewer than 15,000 applications.

In 2010 there were 44 colleges and 1,279 courses with 45,625 places.

Those figures reflect the truly revolutionary changes in the range of colleges, courses and the number of students going on to third-level education. As part of a major consultation process on reforming the Leaving Certificate, the Department of Education has published a discussion paper on the points system.