Irish Examiner view: Decisive leadership on Leaving Cert changes well overdue

'Decisive leadership from education minister Hildegarde Naughton and her department is needed to get the Leaving Certificate back on track.' File picture: PA

At this time of year, many households around the country are nervously awaiting Junior Certificate results, with students receiving their grades next week.

However, the Leaving Certificate is now a source of considerable concern rather than fleeting nervousness.

As Jess Casey reported here this week, major changes to two key Leaving Certificate subjects have been delayed until at least 2028: changes to maths and English, which were originally intended as part of a major overhaul of the senior cycle curriculum, will not now be rolled out to fifth year students from next year, as previously planned.

The new English course, which will include an oral assessment, is now expected to be introduced to those fifth-year students from September 2028. It is the same for the new maths course, which will not be introduced until at least 2028 as well.

This decision has been driven by concerns about these new courses and how they have been developed.

Readers may recall that two expert members of the group redeveloping maths alongside the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) resigned from that process entirely. Both Pauline Mellon and Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin raised concerns about the draft curriculum and proposed changes to the maths course, and it is understood that similar frustrations have also been experienced by those in groups redeveloping other Leaving Certificate subjects.

A considerable problem has now developed. The resignations were a significant blow to the credibility of the maths redevelopment in and of themselves, but the postponement of the new course in that subject and in English is deeply worrying. At a time when schools are facing challenges ranging from artificial intelligence to a teacher staffing crisis, this is a blow our education system could do without. It undermines our faith in that system and undercuts our international reputation — not to mention the uncertainty created for students facing the Leaving Certificate in the coming years.

Decisive leadership from education minister Hildegarde Naughton and her department is needed to get the Leaving Certificate back on track.

Botched execution highlights cruelty of capital punishment 

A shocking case in America this week has brought the issue of capital punishment back into the spotlight, though that bland description is a considerable understatement considering the events in Tennessee on Wednesday.

Christa Pike was sentenced to the death penalty in Tennessee for a murder committed in 1995 and this week she was duly brought to the execution chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

However, neither the initial injection of pentobarbital nor a backup dose killed her, and she was heard snoring until the microphone in the execution chamber was turned off over an hour after the procedure began.

Taken to a nearby hospital, she was described as “alive right now and receiving live-saving medical care” by her lawyer. He has described her treatment as “torture” and called for her death sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment.

It should be pointed out first that Pike has already served 30 years in prison, which could be interpreted as a life sentence in itself, but the obvious focus of attention now is on the botched execution.

This is not the first case of such a procedure going awry — two years ago Tennessee had to halt an execution when it acknowledged a failure to ensure its lethal injection drugs had been tested properly — but Pike’s case is believed to be unparalleled in that she survived the procedure long enough to be moved to a hospital.

There has been a sharp increase in judicial executions in America in recent years — Pike would have been the 30th person put to death in that country this year if she had not survived, for instance.

However, it is difficult to mount any defence of such executions in the light of this case.

The treatment of this woman has been inhumane, resulting in a grim contradiction. Scheduled to be killed by the state, she then had doctors employed by the same state fighting to save her life. That is just one more argument against the lost cause that is capital punishment.

Sportswear for women

It has been a testing few weeks for women in sport, between the rolling disputes about the lengthy process of integration of the GAA, LGFA, and Camogie Association, and some pointed questions which were put to the FAI this week about the security of its senior women’s national team on a trip to Hungary in 2023.

In that context, it is encouraging to see positive news for women in sport. Louth physiotherapist Margaret Walsh’s company is producing sportswear which is specifically designed for women: She launched Féirla earlier this year to help women “feel comfortable, confident, and supported in sport, and to help them stay in it”.

Among the company’s products are shorts with built-in period-proof underwear, shorts with supportive compression layers, and high-waisted styles for girls who prefer extra support. Every pair also includes hidden pockets, which have proven very popular with wearers.

The LGFA has approved the sportswear and Ms Walsh is hoping to get the approval of the Camogie Association in the future.

“It signifies so much more than clothing,” she said this week. “It signifies change, and it signifies a belonging and a place within that sport for that girl.”

Valid points, in particular the importance of having a place in sport for women and girls. Anything which helps in that regard is welcome.

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