This morning will be a stressful one in thousands of homes throughout the State as over 100,000 Leaving and Junior Certificate students begin their exams.
The Leaving Cert, in particular, continues to maintain a towering presence in Irish education. The exam may have plenty of flaws but it remains an essential rite of passage for thousands of students, the gateway to third-level and/or to a new career. Amid all the hype that surrounds the exams this week, it is important for students, and their parents, to keep the examinations in some kind of perspective. Yes, exams results are important but there is a bewildering range of options available in the workplace and in college even for those who may be disappointed. The economic backdrop to the exams could scarcely be more favourable with strong growth and one of the lowest jobless levels in the EU.
All of this will be of little consolation to the thousands of Leaving Cert students who must memorise huge masses of information for the exams over the next three weeks. There are some minor if welcome innovations this year. Sensibly, the State Exams Commission has decided that CDs will be used for the first time in aural exams in languages and music after complaints about the quality of cassette tapes. Religious Education will also be examined for the first time in a small number of schools, bringing the total number of subjects on offer to 90.
Otherwise, the Leaving Cert is largely unchanged in a generation. Today, for example, students taking higher level English will be be in the exam hall for over six hours. Like their parents, most will be crossing their fingers and hoping that the poets they studied will "come up" in the exam. The Leaving Cert remains largely a memory test which assesses a very narrow range of skills. It rewards students for recalling huge volumes of information rather than for personal initiative and flair.
Critically, it is also an exam which does not serve the interests of all students. As the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) has pointed out, it is not meeting the 40 per cent of Irish teenagers who either opt out of school after the Junior Cert or perform very poorly in the exam. The NCCA, the advisory group to the Minister, has proposed radical reform of the exam. Instead of one terminal exam, it envisages a rolling series of exams over a two or three year period. It also proposes new transition units in areas such as drama and sport - and a much wider choice of subjects.
The Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, has been cool in her response to the NCCA proposals, dubbing them the "Rolls Royce" option. The NCCA plans are certainly ambitious - some would say over ambitious. And they would be very expensive to implement. For all that, they point the way to a more modern and relevant Leaving Certificate. Ms Hanafin, it appears, has her own ideas for a more practical and relevant exam. The hope must be that these proposals will emerge sooner rather than later. Reform of the Leaving is long overdue.