The points system is having a negative impact on the teaching and learning environment at second level, Minister for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn has acknowledged.
In a major speech today he said the system colleges use to select students may be undermining those very qualities we value in our students in higher education - their ability to think for themselves, to create and innovate, to initiate and to question.
Mr Quinn also revealed how students are increasingly opting for Leaving Cert subjects which are perceived to be "easier''. These include geography and biology, and agricultural science has recorded a 42 per cent increase at higher level since 2008.
He said some subjects were seen, rightly or wrongly, - to provide an "easier" route to CAO points. But other subjects such as higher level mathematics, physics and chemistry may be perceived as "difficult" because they require higher-order thinking skills that cannot be rote learned., he said.
Mr Quinn was speaking at a conference in UCD on the transition from second to third level. The conference, organised by the Higher Education Authority and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment - will pave the way for major changes in the Leaving Cert and the points system.
The Minister asked: "Are our State examinations adequately measuring and rewarding those capacities that we want students to develop? ''
He also posed a range of other questions including:
- Do CAO points reward students for selecting subjects that are appropriate to their interests and strengths?
- Do they excessively reward students for selecting subjects that may be less relevant to them but useful for points?
- Does the pressure of striving for points narrow the focus of learners and teachers at the expense of developing a wider range of skills?
- Are we rewarding students for representing knowledge that they do not understand and will only remember in the short term?
- Are we sufficiently rewarding students for making informed subject selections that enhance their learning and their skills for the future?
- Or are we rewarding them for making calculated judgments on the quickest route to maximum points?
Mr Quinn admitted he had more questions than answers. "The problems generated at the interface between second and third level are multi-faceted and complex. Solutions will only be arrived at if we focus on the confluence of factors involved.''
The Minister said the challenge was to introduce changes that can have a direct positive impact on learners and their learning experience. "Are there particular qualities that we value and want to encourage in students who are transferring from second to third level education?
Can we design selection measures that more effectively promote and reward those, for example, through capturing extra curricular achievement or ability?
"It is ironic, as things stand, that the very system we use to select students may be undermining those very qualities we value in our students in higher education - their ability to think for themselves, to create and innovate, to initiate and to question.''
Mr Quinn said there was a need to be prepared to think in terms of radically new approaches and alternatives to the current arrangements. But he said there was also a need to be conscious of the need to maintain public confidence in the integrity and fairness of any selection system.
The Minister said he had no intention of throwing away that sense of public trust and confidence.
