Thursday is a milestone day for thousands of students who will finally receive their Leaving Certificate results. It is a nerve-jangling event, too, for parents and guardians who hope their children can fulfil their career dreams. It is worth remembering that this is a year group which experienced significant disruption during their second level education. The pandemic has brought important lessons and among these is that our young people are resilient and have displayed a maturity beyond their years in coping with adversity.
The exams this year were modified to take account of this. They included more choice and, in some cases, fewer questions. In a surprise move, following a direction from Minister for Education Norma Foley, overall grades have been artificially maintained at last year’s high levels. This follows several years of grade inflation linked to Covid developments such as teacher-assessed grades.
Foley’s reluctance to adjust grades back towards pre-pandemic norms shows the dilemma facing decision-makers. While universities argue that we need to return to normal to protect the integrity of grades, it is a delicate balancing act. A sharp adjustment would disadvantage many of this year’s students in the race for CAO points compared to thousands of applicants from previous years on more inflated grades.
There is little argument, however, over whether the Leaving Cert and college entry system is fit for purpose. Almost everybody agrees that the Leaving Cert needs to change and that it unnecessarily confines the educational experience. Teaching for “the leaving” often dominates to the exclusion of broader and more innovative approaches. And this is at a time when artificial intelligence is rapidly redefining the skills we need more of such as creativity, problem-solving, teamwork and communication.
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Foley has pledged sweeping reforms such as continuous assessment by teachers, more marks for project work and fewer marks for terminal exams. These reforms hold the prospect of welcome change, though they have already fallen at the first hurdle. Plans to move some Leaving Cert exams to fifth year – described as an “easy win” by one official – were abandoned in the face of opposition from teachers earlier this year. Many, as a result, will question what hope there is of delivering more significant change any time soon.
When the OECD reviewed the Leaving Cert recently, it found that its overall purposes seemed “too narrow and rigid” for Ireland’s aspirations of delivering a learning experience to the highest international standards. As a senior OECD official later put it, Ireland needs to modernise its education system to avoid producing “second-class robots” in a world of rapid technological change. Leaving Cert reform cannot come soon enough.