Entry to third level - Assessment is worth considering

NOBODY can deny that Ireland’s Leaving Cert exam, with its heavy emphasis on a points system which encourages parrot-style learning by rote, is utterly inadequate as a grounding for students to survive in higher education, in their career or in adult life.

Many students undergo a severe form of culture shock when they move from second-level to third-level education with some opting to change their degree course or drop out altogether.

This scenario underlines the significance of a proposal to harness secondary teachers as professional assessors of their pupils’ abilities and qualities before they go from the classroom to the lecture theatre. In airing this, Dr Ed Walsh, founding president of the University of Limerick, has identified a possible new role for teachers. It is an issue that will stir up debate involving teachers, Education Minister Ruairi Quinn and the public.

Dr Walsh believes teachers’ views should be sought by the various colleges to help them decide which students to admit into third-level courses. While the current review of the points system is crucially important, the suggestion that teachers should measure the suitability of students against a range of criteria conjures up a form of selection that smacks of academic elitism and is bound to prove controversial.

Speaking as one of the country’s leading educators, Dr Walsh considers that the intensity of competition to get into higher education has caused the system to falter. Admitting that when he went to university “a reasonable pass got you into what you wanted” he emphasises that “now it’s far more difficult”.

Going on past experience, the concept of assessing students is likely to prove unpopular with teachers, who already take a jaundiced view of having their own performance vetted. Arguably, the proposed umbrella body aimed at giving them a united and even stronger union voice would also oppose it. On a broader front, an inbuilt resistance to job assessment exists in unions right across the public sector. Self-assessment is certainly not the answer as it would copper-fasten a culture where lack of transparency and accountability would flourish.

At the heart of any new curriculum there must be recognition of the fact that the student is the single most important element of the Irish education system. By proposing that teachers be involved in assessing students for the transition from second to third-level education, Dr Walsh continues his role of polemicist and performs a valuable public service.

With the spotlight increasingly focused on the role of universities in reviving the economy, enhancing social enrichment and improving lifestyles, the quality and ability of undergraduates assume even greater significance. A case in point concerns the slippage of Irish universities in world league rankings, a trend which has turned a spotlight on the crisis in mathematics. By assessing students for third-level education, maths teachers would take on an extra role for which they ought to be remunerated.

Reform of the secondary education system must be aimed at developing a curriculum grounded in the Ireland of the 21st century. Teachers have a vital role to play in this process. By vetting the aptitude of third-level applicants, their involvement in the field of education would reach far beyond the classroom