Does the Leaving Cert nurture the critical skills needed for success? No is the answer

According to the Talent Economy, there are six critical skills required for success in the coming decades: curiosity, creativity, conscientiousness, critical thinking, collaboration, and cognitive flexibility. Dr Catherine Conlon explains why the Leaving Cert fails to provide any of these skills

Does the Leaving Certificate nurture curiosity, creativity, conscientiousness, critical thinking, collaboration, or cognitive flexibility? It does not. File picture: Gavin Browne

The Taoiseach has called for reform of the Leaving Cert to ensure that courses help students "to prepare for the world of today and tomorrow."

"The Leaving Cert in its current form was designed following Fianna Fáil’s introduction of free secondary education. But that was before most of the modern economy existed and before many of the pressures experienced by young people today had even been imagined.