Irish Examiner view: Reform of State exam is long overdue

Pandemic unveiled the cracks in the system and they should not just be papered over

The Class of 2021 today sit down to written Leaving Cert papers under Covid-19 restriction for the second years in-a-row. The pandemic has distracted us from the usual fevered run-up to the exams, an important upside. Picture: Domnick Walsh © Eye Focus LTD.

The arrival of good weather at exam time has become such a failsafe occurrence that we need a meteorological term to describe it, but there is nothing usual about this year’s Leaving Cert for the class of 2021 who have had to negotiate remote learning, lockdown, and an unsettling degree of uncertainty during a global pandemic.

Tens of thousands of students will sit down to written papers today but, unlike previous years, they will also have the safeguard of calculated grades provided by teachers. They will be able to choose the higher grade in a dual approach which, according to Education Minister Norma Foley, provides them with the best of both worlds.

That is a small upside and one which may help the estimated 87% of students opting for written exams to negotiate the challenging circumstances of sitting socially distanced exams while wearing masks.

The pandemic has distracted us from the usual fevered run-up to the exams. There has not been the usual media focus on exam pressure and college options or, at least, it has been overshadowed by more headline-grabbing events. That has to be seen as a positive. Anything that reduces the pressure on the 60,000-plus students facing the Leaving Cert, in whatever form, is a good thing.

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If the exceptional and difficult circumstances of this year’s exams offer some small advantages, they also highlight the flaws in a system that has been crying out for reform for several years. Earlier this month, post-primary principals said the Covid-19 experience made the case for reform of State exams more urgent.

A majority of those surveyed by Maynooth University Department of Education called for the Leaving Cert to be decoupled from entrance to third-level education. They said a new system of ongoing assessment and some form of modularisation should be introduced instead.

As we have seen in many other sectors, the report found that the pandemic unveiled the cracks in the system and noted they should not just be papered over to provide a temporary fix.

Higher Education Minister Simon Harris sounded a similar note yesterday when he said there was a huge need, post-pandemic, to discuss the future of the Leaving Cert.

He said changes to last year’s traditional Leaving Cert had benefitted many pupils who weren’t as good at rote-learning as others. Last year, he said, proved that people can get into college without a Leaving Cert and the world continues to rotate on its axis.

He has already signalled his intention to overhaul the CAO form which, he said, was not the only way of getting where you want to go in life. We might say the same of the Leaving Cert itself. There are many examples of successful people who did poorly at exams. That thought might also provide some solace to those who are feeling the pressure of sitting exams that continue until 29 June.

While the exam is important and, for now, the only way of assessing school work, students might remember that it is only one milestone in their rich and precious lives.