Victoria White: Testing times for the whole family as Leaving saga twists and turns
Sixty percent of students were looking to receive predicted grades but I agree that it couldn’t be done, writes
So it looks like we have a starting date. July 29, 2020.
That’s the Government’s Plan A for this year’s Leaving Certificate and already it’s solidifying in our household plans.
If Himself is allowed to travel, he goes out West with the Leaving Cert candidate’s autistic twin and any of the others who are willing. I stay home and bake apple pie for the candidate.
“If that’s the worst thing that can happen to you is you miss your holiday....” as a friend of mine keeps intoning helpfully.
The truth is, I’m not worried about this year, I’m worried about next year, when my last Leaving Cert candidate will, God willing, have to present herself.
It’s not about me, either, it’s about her.
Minister, we can’t go through this again.
We can’t go through another “will he, won’t he” period at home followed by a Summer of No Love.
This week my fifth year daughter had to absorb the news that her longed-for Gaeltacht course in July was cancelled.
That’s on top of all the parties, the giggles with the girls over coffee, the music festivals….
All those precious opportunities for self-realisation in the life of a 17-year-old girl which will not come again.
If this were followed by another wave of Covid 19 and another wave of “will he, won’t he” I honestly could not answer for the consequences in this house or for the mental health of more than 55,000 kids.
Because next time, there would be a big difference. It would be our fault. This time I accept the Government had little room for manoeuvre.
Personally, I think there would have been merit in proceeding on June 3 with students sitting in small groups, well separated and perhaps doing one exam a day.
When there is talk of bringing back the junior infants who can’t possibly be expected to observe social distancing, and shouldn’t be asked to, I can’t see why kids aged from 17 to 19 couldn’t have done their Leaving Cert.
I’m just a Mammy, though, not a public health expert, and if this seven-week delay has been ordained then so be it.
Sixty percent of Leaving Certificate students surveyed were looking for predicted grades but I agree that it couldn’t be done.
You can’t fundamentally change the rules of a game and name your winners and losers after the game has been played.
That would be totally unfair. The very least candidates can expect is to know the rules of the game they are playing.
That’s why the Department of Education’s primary concern right now should be working out how they are going to change the game so that no other class ever faces the challenges faced by the Class of 2020.
They already have the research done for the completely new examination regime which is needed.
Just before the Covid crisis hit, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment had published their report on the very wide public consultation they held last year on curriculum reform.
Throughout there was an emphasis on moving away from one final exam towards credit-based modules. Continuous assessment by different methods and “Open book exams” taken on computers were suggested.
Though no one knew a pandemic was coming our way, there was already a strong concern expressed that one exam at one time on one day is no way to assess a student who is facing particular challenges at that time and that repeating the year was too big a penalty for that student to pay.
If enough of its recommendations were followed, no Irish student would ever again have to go through the trauma faced by the Class of 2020.
Take languages, for instance, oral exams in which were entirely cancelled this year.
The NCCA report says: “For language learning, the use of a language portfolio, compiled during the course of the Senior Cycle and incorporating audio and video files, samples of student writing, evidence of digital literacy and creative engagement with the language and its resources would be highly recommended as a supplement to terminal oral and written exams.”
There’s no use wringing our hands and wishing the NCCA’s recommendations had been followed for the Class of 2020.
The point is that it must be followed for the Class of 2021 and every class thereafter.
It’s not just that there may be anything from three to nine epidemics of Covid 19 in this country, according to research from King’s College, London.
It’s not even that there will be more pandemics, which is a logical conclusion, given the stress which the expanding human race is now placing on the natural world.
It’s also that the wham-bam Leaving Cert has been cruelly exposed by the Covid Crisis.
The NCCA report records the recommendation that elements of the kids’ lives apart from academics, could form part of their final assessment: they could earn credits for their volunteering, for sport and for work experience.
The worry is expressed, however, that if the CAO points system for entry to Third Level remains as it is, nothing will change.
As the NCCA report says, the drive for CAO points has implications for students’ health and well-being and makes for limited interpretations of “what is seen as success at Senior Cycle.”
Respondents call on the Department of Education to start negotiations with the Third Level Colleges on a different way of allocating their places.
One of the more practical solutions to this problem was put forward in 2011 by Aine Hyland, Emeritus Professor of Education at UCC, who suggested that students gain general entry points into foundation courses at Third Level and specialise out of them.
This would have the effect of flattening the points across the spectrum of Third Level courses. It would also mean a 17-year-old doesn’t have to decide to be a doctor or an engineer or a nurse straight after the Leaving Cert and without taking even a short wander through other groves of academe.
All these suggestions and more have now been made in the public domain for the Class of 2020.
Tragically, for them it is too late.
The question now is, will we do those kids the honour of learning from this crisis?
Teachers went on strike over it because they did not want to assess their own Junior Certificate students.
Now the June exams have been cancelled. In the face of some vague idea that exams might take place in the autumn, Colaiste Bhaile Chlair, Claregalway, has decided to assess their own students in June.
This gives their kids an aim until the end of term and releases them to enjoy the summer as 15- and 16-year-olds should.
It’s inspiring how fast people can change direction in a crisis. Let’s not pretend we can go back to where we were before Covid.
The work must start now to ensure we never repeat what has happened to the Class of 2020.
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