Hands off the Leaving, but is third-level below par?
It is one of the few remaining areas of life in Ireland that has not been corrupted and nobody, no matter how wealthy or politically powerful, can influence their own child’s results. Yet the minister for education seems hell-bent on destroying it.
As a teacher, I see it as my task to help my students to get the best possible grade in their Leaving Cert. I know they see me as someone who is there to support them and help them through, not one who decides whether they will pass or fail.
I would never want to have that relationship with my students. I am their advocate, not their judge. The fact that they have an impartial person, to whom they are only identified by number, judging their final exam, is their guarantee of fairness. The work produced by students under examination conditions has real validity. It is all their own work. Project work may or may not be.
The divide between students from a supportive or wealthy background and those who are disadvantaged widens considerably when projects are completed at home.
Third-level institutions are reporting increasing difficulty in judging what is original work from what has been plagiarised from the internet.
If teachers assess their own pupils for certification purposes they will come under enormous pressure. Anyone who reads the evidence placed before the various tribunals must surely be aware of the pressures, not to say inducements, encountered by those who had the power to rezone land.
Teachers who can be identified as having the power to decide Leaving Cert points will not be immune.
I have put thousands of students through state exams since I started teaching. Amongst them were the children of my principal, my colleagues and even my own children. This is by no means uncommon. Thankfully, I never had to test my own impartiality.
Over-interference by government in Britain has ruined an education system that was once the envy of the world. Let us not go down that path.
The minister would do far better to put all his attention into removing inequality and disadvantage within the education system rather than interfering with what is not broken.
Susie Hall
President
Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland
ASTI House
Winetavern Street
Dublin 8
I WISH to comment on the letter entitled ‘Testing times for primary pupils’ (Irish Examiner, July 30) which was signed by seven doctoral candidates at the Department of Education and Professional Studies, University of Limerick. (They challenged the introduction of mandatory testing in two subject areas - English and mathematics - in primary schools, and defended the value of teacher assessment backed up by standardised tests).
It saddens me to know there are so many teachers who would challenge a minister for education by asking, “is he saying that only literacy and numeracy matter?” Of course, they matter. While they may not be the only things, they are by far the most important. Of what use is a person who is illiterate and cannot add or subtract?
The standard of education has fallen so much in the last three decades that it is now completely inadequate.
About five years ago I was going through some old schoolbooks with my daughter - both hers and mine. She was 21 at the time. She has a Leaving Cert and has spent three years at night school studying psychology and childcare.
I was amazed at the number of words from my books that she didn’t understand. I asked her if she could parse a sentence. I picked one out and she looked at me as if I had two heads. She did not know what that meant.
When I showed her some equations and simple mathematical problems she wanted her calculator to work them out while some algebraic formulae left her mesmerised.
Is this education? Together with some friends of mine we worked out that the honours Intermediate Cert I received in 1964 was of a much higher standard than today’s Leaving Cert.
I would go so far as to say that the Primary Cert I received in 1961 would be a very severe test for today’s Junior Cert candidates. Assessment by the pupil’s own teacher is a very subjective process and, in my opinion, useless - like writing a reference or testimonial.
After all, it means they would have to teach, and that’s real work.
In my day classes were divided into A, B, C and down as far as F - and G in some years. Obviously those pupils who scored highest were in the A class the following year, and so on down. In other words the exam system placed pupils of similar ability in the same class.
What is wrong with this? Incidentally, my class sizes varied from 40 to 45 with no ill effects.
William Evers
Mauritius Crescent
Capri Village 7975
Cape Town
South Africa
I REFER to the third-level education feature entitled ‘Out with the old, in with the new’ (Irish Examiner, August 16). It seems clear that while the new may be in, the old attitude towards the student body still remains. The interviewees seemed more concerned with “adapting to the needs of industry” than to the needs of students.
An entire half page was dedicated to the incoming heads of two third-level institutions, yet student reaction to this was not mentioned once.
This highlights a worrying trend that seems to be taking hold in a number of third-level institutions. Not only are decisions being made at government level without adequate consultation, the same seems to be true regarding third-level institutions.
As mentioned in your feature, the Conference of Heads of Irish Universities recently met the Taoiseach. I wonder how much time was spent discussing students’ views and needs?
I find this growing apathy very worrying. The simple fact is that, without students, third-level institutions would not exist. Do not ignore us.
Tomás Óg Ó Céilleachair
Oifigeach na Gaeilge
Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn
Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh
