Letters to the Editor: Use aptitude tests in any reform of Leaving Cert

It has long been said that traditional external examination methods don’t suit all students, that over-reliance on end-of-cycle external examinations causes much stress and anxiety and that entry to higher education has become a lottery based on CAO points.

I welcome the decision of the Minister for Education to put proposals for teacher-based assessments on hold because of uncertainty regarding the use of artificial intelligence in exam performance. I believe most teachers know their students well and that project-based assessments linked to end-of-cycle external examinations work well. We already have these in the Junior Certificate examinations and some aspects of the Leaving Certificate’s suite of programmes and subjects.

Simultaneously the Irish education system uses reliable aptitude tests to assist in identifying students’ potential and uses these results to guide decision-making for additional supports for some students, as well as entry into some higher-education programmes, including medicine. I believe there is scope to examine their more widespread use, especially as aids to external assessment in conjunction with existing approaches.

It has long been said that traditional external examination methods don’t suit all students, that over-reliance on end-of-cycle external examinations causes much stress and anxiety and that entry to higher education has become a lottery based on CAO points. I’ve seen the impact of these concerns on students and their families over many years as a post-primary teacher and principal, among other roles in education.

It’s important to note that over the years, there has been an element of artificial intelligence at play in the high-stakes CAO points-driven Leaving Certificate through extra tuition in the form of grinds and of course grind schools and schools with a narrow educational focus.

Therefore it seems to me that Leaving Certificate examination reform should consist of a mix of what we have at present, linked to standardised aptitude test results. I believe that one’s natural ability should be fully reflected in external final examination results by being taken into account in determining these results.

Let’s hope this is fully explored by the education system as a whole.

Joe Harrison

Spanish Point

Co Clare

Laidback Leo

In the report ‘Taoiseach ‘not concerned’ that Fine Gael has lost votes of farmers and gardaí', I wonder if that sentiment is true, because if it is, he must then not be concerned about the next general election either.

Has he thrown in the towel already, or has he an eye on more
lucrative pastures?

Liam Burke

Dunmore

Co Kilkenny

Phone radiation

The article published in last Saturday’s business section on the Apple iPhone 12 is materially and factually incorrect. It states, regarding mobile phones: “According to the WHO, no adverse health effects have been established as being caused by them.”

In 2011, the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), classified radiofrequency radiation as a Group 2B carcinogen and “possibly carcinogenic to humans”. This classification was based on evidence to 2011 of an increased risk of glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer, associated with mobile phone use. Experimental and epidemiological research since 2011 corroborated and extended this finding and many scientists now believe, based on recent “clear evidence”, that radiofrequency radiation should be reclassified as a Group 2A probable or a Group 1 carcinogen along with cigarettes. It must be noted that the WHO unequivocally expresses
concerns about the health risks to children from exposure to radiofrequency radiation, including that emitted by mobile phones.

I belong to a group of researchers that includes medical practitioners, epidemiologists, oncologists, physicists, bioengineers, microbiologists, and the former director of the US government’s National Institute for Environmental Health Science the National Toxicology Program (NTP). We have recently reviewed and evaluated the risks to children of everyday exposure to radiation from wireless devices. We find that the risks to children are real and amplified due to their developing neurological and central nervous systems, thinner skulls, and lighter body mass. While “clear evidence” of the carcinogenicity of radiofrequency radiation comes from comprehensive NTP and Ramazzini Institute studies on animals, 90% of studies find an association between everyday exposure to low-level radiofrequency radiation from wireless devices and cellular oxidative stress. (These levels are far below the regulatory threshold Apple is accused of breaching.) 

Oxidative stress is associated with many serious neurological and physical disorders, including, for example, anxiety, learning disorders, ADHD, Alzheimer’s disease, and skin cancer, all of which have increased dramatically in recent years. Thus, any environmental agent found to produce oxidative stress in humans is of major concern and the precautionary principle should be applied, especially where children are concerned.

This is not the first time that Apple or other smartphone manufacturers have exceeded regulatory radiofrequency radiation thresholds, as discovered in research conducted by French physician, Dr Marc Arazi and published in Phonegate, and also in subsequent independent studies conducted for the Chicago Tribune. Not only are the telecommunications and IT industries gaming the regulations to enhance the performance of wireless devices, they have also been distorting the scientific evidence on the adverse health effects of exposure to low-level radiofrequency radiation since the 1970s. Members of the European Parliament, Dr Klaus Buchner and Michèle Rivasi, found in their research that the industry effectively captured the FCC and the ICNIRP NGO, which produce the safety guidelines for the US and EU respectively. My research also finds that both also are entwined with and heavily dependent on the industry standards body the IEEE, whose members are predominantly industry consultants and engineers. Thus, in all this children’s health and safety has not and is not being protected.

Professor Tom Butler

University College Cork

Saving our salmon

A salmon spawns mostly around Christmas for about two weeks. An average fish will lay about 3,000 eggs, only five to 10 eggs will survive to become alevin or baby salmon because of predication by trout and otters, etc. If predication is stopped, as we know from fish farmers, that most of the salmon eggs will hatch.

In theory if the nest — or redd as it’s called — is protected it would very dramatically increase the survival of the alevin.

The spawn could be protected by a metal mesh such as those used by plasterers which can be cut to size and secured by metal tent pegs. The material cost per redd would be about €10. It would be cheap, portable and manageable. Success could be measured by electro fishing in March for an increase in baby salmon (Parr) numbers.

I think to attempt something like the above would be better than doing nothing to save our salmon.

Ramor Craigie

Bantry

Co Cork

Exclusion zone laws

The details of the so-called protest covered in the report ‘Group says anti-abortion protest at Cork hospital shows need for safe access zones’ exposes the baselessness of supposedly ‘urgent’ calls for abortion exclusion zones.

A Cork University Maternity Hospital spokesperson said there have been zero complaints about protests from any patients. Moreover, the hospital spokesperson acknowledged that protests are infrequent and consist of between two to four people.

The suggestion from groups like Together for Safety that special legislation is urgently required to clamp down on this kind of activity is absurd. Two people expressing their views on the right to life of unborn children hardly constitutes a protest.

In a free society, people have a right to gather in public spaces and express their view. People are free to gather in the public spaces around a hospital and express their view on any given issue. The fact that legislation is now before the Dáil which would discriminate against one particular ethical perspective, the pro-life viewpoint, is inherently unjust.

Many of the activities described as ‘protests’ outside hospitals are simply a small group of people praying and practising their religion. This can include praying for unborn children.

Exclusion zone legislation is intended to demonise and negatively caricature pro-life citizens. Its advocates are chiefly seasoned campaigners whose attitudes are fervently intolerant and illiberal.

Eilís Mulroy

Pro Life Campaign

Dublin 2

‘Smart’ policing has not worked

I agree with Gareth O’Callaghan’s piece, 'Society glorifies criminals while our gardaí are given no respect'. Everyone wants to know their local garda but due to ‘smart’ policing we have lost touch with the garda on the street.

What good are boxes ticked on a computer so that an analyst can report how many crimes have occurred if the gardaí don’t have time to actually investigate the crime?

I know I’d prefer to see gardaí on the beat and investigating than updating a computer.

What good has this reform done for policing?

Mary Crowe

Ennis

Co Clare