Letter to the Editor: Right to postpone the Leaving Cert exams

Education Minister Joe McHugh was right to postpone this year’s Leaving Certificate.

With a daughter studying for that exam and planning for a future at University College Cork, I have taken part in the National Parents Council survey and followed the debates about whether or not to hold the state exams during the coronavirus outbreak.

Before I retired to Ireland, I was principal of two large comprehensive schools in England. There, each year, in early spring, teachers and schools were required to submit predictive grades. The department of education, examination boards, and universities all had cumulative evidence of the accuracy of individual schools in predicting results. In this way, predictions could be reliably standardised by past performance. Sadly, here in Ireland, we have no such measures and so we have no alternative to the actual examinations.

Some have argued that this year’s mock Leaving Cert results could be used. Here again, this is not possible, because even within schools, there are very different procedures. Some set mocks based on the entire syllabus. Some do so on 75% of the syllabus. Some mark hard, so as to encourage study; others mark gently, in the hope of the same.

When we come out of this year’s debacle, the Department of Education must address the guidance on both predictive grades and mock examinations.

In the meantime, we must muddle through in the fairest way possible, as laid out by the minister.

Alan Whelan

Killarney

Co Kerry