Stress and the Leaving Cert

Madam, - During the coming exam season, I hope that the media will exercise restraint and forgo the hype with which in recent…

Madam, - During the coming exam season, I hope that the media will exercise restraint and forgo the hype with which in recent years they have surrounded the Leaving Cert.

In recent years, we have had on news bulletins and in the newspapers daily, a surfeit of information which seems to serve no useful purpose. We are told about what subjects are being examined each day, and after every exam eager journalists ask pupils for their (purely subjective) opinions on whether the exam was "easy" or "hard" or "fair". Is it any wonder that we hear of high levels of stress among pupils and parents?

The equivalent of the Leaving Cert takes place in other countries without the media obsession which we experience here. This year, please give us all, especially students and their parents, a break. - Yours, etc,

E. HAUGHEY, Muff, Co Donegal.