Sir, - I read with some dismay in your edition of January 5th that the Department of Education wishes to drop the Junior Certificate altogether. As a teacher of history, I have found the Junior Certificate to be an entirely uplifting educational experience both for myself and for my students. History at Junior Certificate level offers students a real opportunity to engage in the subject by exploring the work of the archaeologist and historian. The structure of the examination tests the ability of the student's acquired skills over a three-year period. Compare that with a Leaving Certificate history examination, which, after two years of demanding study, is reduced to a three-and-a-half hour writing marathon of five essays.
I really have to question the wisdom of the Department when it seeks to scrap that which has brought learning to life and given so many students a taste of success, while at the same time continuing to enforce a Leaving Certificate machine which is truly murder! - Yours, etc.,
Dominic Price, Boyle Court, Harold's Cross, Dublin 6W.