The Leaving Certificate results published today simply provide percentages of grades achieved in the different subjects and in themselves give no detailed insight into student performance. Taken in conjunction with the examiners analysis of 1995 Leaving Certificate performance published last week, however, a broader picture does emerge. The examiners expressed very serious concern over levels of literacy, and knowledge of grammar in English papers and this, year's results seem to echo the criticism. The proportion of students scoring high grades in English has fallen while subjects such as Irish and mathematics have registered substantial increases in high grades.
The examiners concern over students inability to write good, grammatical English is worrying; they described even high quality honours students as writing "illogical, muddled and sometimes incomprehensible" answers. The most important objective of any education system is to achieve high levels of literacy, after all; if students mastery of English is deficient this is clearly going to hinder their performance in other subjects, too. The concerns of the Leaving Certificate examiners must be followed up and both the syllabus and teaching methodology used in English classes regularly reviewed.
By contrast, mathematics seems to be emerging as the big success story of recent examinations. A new three level syllabus has greatly increased the numbers taking the subject at higher level and at the same time reduced the numbers failing outright. This year almost 50 per cent of all students taking higher mathematics scored an A or B grade; the equivalent for English was only 23 per cent and for Irish 38 per cent. The results seem to indicate that performance in the Irish language has improved substantially over very dismal levels last year. Perhaps the clue to the improvements in both Irish and mathematics lies in the provision of a syllabus set at three different levels of ability. Yet, with English the problem appears to lie as much with the higher level student as with the less academic candidates.
It is tempting to concentrate on the performance of higher level students. But one should remember that the majority of candidates are sitting the examination at ordinary level; it is from these results that average literacy and numeracy standards are assessed. What stands out most starkly at this level is the very high failure rates in science subjects almost one fifth of all ordinary level candidates. It is unacceptably high, given the concentration of employment in technological areas; again it indicates the need for an investigation of the syllabus's relevance and the effectiveness of teaching methodology.
Perhaps it is students' performance in history which will concern many people most. Earlier in the year the Minister for Education came under attack when it appeared that history might cease to be a compulsory Junior Certificate subject in some schools. The Leaving Certificate results show one of the highest failure rates of any mainstream subject for ordinary level history and a relatively high failure rate for higher level students also; the proportion of students scoring high grades has also fallen. The moral is clear: it is not enough to make a subject compulsory, concern is also necessary about the quality of the syllabus and the approach to teaching and motivating the students.
With some 80 per cent of students now staying in school through senior cycle, the Leaving Certificate has effectively become the barometer of national educational standards. It is important that the readings of this barometer be fed back into the educational system and used to maintain and improve standards.