Time to scrap Irish exam bias

It emerged this week that pupils attending private schools and those opting to take the Leaving Certificate through Irish were in the two highest categories that progressed to third-level education directly.

I have no issue with private education as people pay extra for this resource and should expect a delivery on their investment. However, I do have an issue with the Leaving Cert through Irish. People opting to do the exam through Irish have a competitive advantage over their peers, both private and state. They are awarded extra points for nothing and therefore have an unfair advantage. It is now mainstream to do the Leaving in Irish and it’s time to remove this distorted corruption of the State exam points system.

The argument for getting extra points through Irish is not clear, I believe it is a benefit for opting to do the exam in the ‘native’ language rather than the everyday language of Ireland [English]. However, if one were to be rational about it, there are many immigrant children now in Ireland doing their Leaving in their non-native second language, English. Surely they should be given a similar advantage for completing the exam in their non-native tongue?