Madam, – During this first week of Leaving Certificate examinations, isn’t it about time we realised that the age at which students take this most important of exams needs to be raised?
At present our young people are asked to choose the third-level courses they want to pursue half way through sixth year when they are normally between the ages of 16 and 17. Candidates at such an age are unlikely to make informed decisions on whether they are best suited to a career in medicine, economics, journalism or teaching.
In my experience of education systems on the continent, second-level graduates there are closer to 20 years of age when they leave school and therefore more aware of their own strengths and weaknesses when they decide what career to follow.
The introduction of transition year in some schools goes some way to helping, allowing students to work and mature and take a step back from the constant pressure of the Leaving Certificate. However, it is not compulsory and is often regarded with ridicule.
I was 16 when I filled in my CAO form. My career guidance teacher had just received some literature about pharmacy and recommended that I do it. I didn’t. However, I believe that if he had received literature from Nasa the same day, then I might have been convinced that a career in space was my calling.
My point is that the advice open to me was flawed. By the time I had just turned 20 I had a degree from UCD and was ready to work. It seemed, in retrospect, that the system of education was very eager to be finished with me before I was ready to leave.
Our young men and women should be given a chance – and be allowed to enjoy themselves a little more before they decide on who they are and what they want to be. – Yours, etc,