Examiner View: Wellbeing of teens can’t be ignored

Why not use the pandemic as an excuse to promote ambitious and radical reform in our education system?

The pandemic has offered us the chance to ask whether our students are getting the best education in the best conditions. We have re-examined the roles of teachers and parents. It has emboldened people to call for change on a number of fronts.

Whether they seek improved school ventilation or resources, greater use of remote learning, or traffic plans to avoid Covid-19-spreading congregation, the way we envisage our schools and how they fit in around family life and nine-to-fives is changing.

We have a great many voices keen to proffer their views on how to improve learning and conditions for our students, but are we asking the right people?

There is no doubt that our school students have suffered these past two years. Uncertainty around the Junior and Leaving Certificates has played an enormous part in that. But student wellbeing isn’t an issue that is confined to the pandemic.

A survey of more than 3,500 second-level students in 2019 reported on in this newspaper found that more than half of Leaving Cert students had suffered a physical or mental health issue as a result of the exam cycle.

Those who had identified their own mental or physical health concerns (a mature response given their age group) said they had struggled with anxiety, weight gain, weight loss, insomnia, and depression.

Depression is a strong word, which is often used liberally to conflate feelings of fear, sadness, and pressure with the more severe, clinical condition, but that the word is used at all to describe feelings brought on by our exam cycles is cause for concern.

The Ombudsman for Children, Dr Niall Muldoon, has rightly pointed to the lack of a strong voice in the reform debate among those going through our schools.

He points to a 2016 UN Committee on the Rights of Children report which recommended the reform of the Leaving Certificate due to the disproportionate level of mental stress experienced by young people.

“I believe that, six years on, the State will fail to show any real progress on the implementation of this recommendation,” Dr Muldoon said.

This is a damning indictment of the care we provide for our young people. Our education system ranks highly for its quality worldwide and we are proud of our students who achieve so much domestically and abroad and who are sought after by companies around the world.

This has reputational benefits in a minimum corporation tax world where companies looking at Ireland will reap the benefits of an educated, English-speaking, EU workforce.

So why not use the pandemic as the excuse to promote ambitious and radical reform. Yes, tinkering with the education system can be politically toxic. The voters who would say ‘ah but it was fine in our day’ don’t want to see a ‘dumbing down’ of standards.

But change to improve our teenagers’ wellbeing and happiness, while striving to achieve better standards? Why wouldn’t we want action on those fronts?

By leaving half of our students in despair or under pressure we put a strain on our healthcare services, on our families, and on our livelihoods. By assuming that change means lower standards, we assume the worst of teachers for whom education is a vocation and a privilege.

Why don’t we plan for potential and ask our school students of varying backgrounds and abilities what solutions might look like? After all, the old adage ‘never waste a good crisis’ has never been more appropriate, and asking the question won’t do anyone any harm. The same can’t necessarily be said of continuing to ignore our students.