Sir, – When young people from poor backgrounds do badly at the Leaving Certificate, the reasons are seen as obvious: they lack application; their parents lack sufficient interest; their homes lack an environment conducive to study, etc. Basically the problem is seen as lying with the young people themselves and their families.
However when middle-class girls do better than middle-class boys at the Leaving Certificate, the Leaving Certificate is identified as “the problem”, ie it encourages rote learning; it devalues (somehow) science and technology, etc. ESRI research has shown that girls work harder than boys. Yet rather than encouraging middle-class boys to emulate their middle-class sisters and study hard, various attempts have been to erode the girls’ advantage.
The most recent of these (Opinion, September 7th) is the suggestion that a lottery be used to allocate places at university above a certain points CAO level. The message that this will give to boys and girls is that chance rather than hard work will determine your life options.
Is this really the message we want to give to our young people as they come into adulthood? – Yours, etc,