Irish Examiner view: No, we will continue to celebrate success

It's time to unbundle a mish-mash of assertions about media coverage of the Leaving Cert examinations

Paul Kehoe TD linked media moratoriums around elections with public exams, saying of Irish media: 'Not alone are they driving the student mad, they are driving their parents mad'. Stock picture

The media is used to being accused of many things but causing general grief through coverage of the Leaving Cert and the complexities of the CAO system is a new one for us.

However, apparently it is nothing new to Paul Kehoe, chair of the Oireachtas education committee, who attacked what he deems “reckless” reporting that adds pressure on students.

Mr Kehoe, a Fine Gael TD for Wexford, made the charge when senior civil servants from the State Examinations Commission (SEC) and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment gave evidence to his committee on Tuesday — and some of them appear to share his view.

SEC chief executive Andrea Feeney said Ireland was unusual in terms of the high media coverage generated around students’ final set of school exams, adding that the SEC would like to see a moratorium imposed if possible.

Mr Kehoe said we have moratoriums for elections, where the media is “not allowed” to report on it 24 hours beforehand. Students often receive one message from their teachers and another from their parents, he said:

Then the media comes in on top of that as well. Not alone are they driving the student mad, they are driving their parents mad. 

Let’s try to unbundle this mish-mash of assertions. 

The protocol that there is a 24-hour hiatus before an election is not there to protect the sensitivities of politicians and voters. Historically, it exists to prevent allegedly election-changing assertions entering the public debate without the prospect of rebuttal and balance.

It is rooted in the days when print was the dominant medium, although RTÉ for many years followed a similar convention. Now, it looks increasingly quaint with a multiplicity of always-on digital platforms and rapid rebuttal units operated by many political parties.

The thrust of this argument is that students who have been less successful than they hoped will be discommoded or embarrassed by other higher achievers but it contains an assumption that we should not celebrate success when, in reality, society is enriched and made happier by it.

Success, which may range from completing a Leaving Cert to achieving record results, takes many forms. This newspaper published CAO guidance and advice while celebrating a variety of achievers last year and will continue to do so.

But no one obliges pupils to make themselves available for photographs or indeed schools to draw attention to their achievements, and there can barely be a youngster, through the use of social media, who doesn’t know how other members of their peer groups have performed.

The media is too easily blamed in this case by politicians and civil servants who would prefer to operate without publicity. 

Perhaps the next recommendation will be to delay those university graduation pictures until people have fully recovered from the disappointment of getting a third-class honour rather than the first they were expecting.