Sir, – With the beginning of the Leaving Certificate exams, so also begins the media coverage of the exams. I actually think that most of this coverage is “hype” and very unhelpful “hype” at that.
While the Leaving Cert is a big event, ultimately it’s just another step along the journey of life.
I am now 49 years old and have completed three Leaving Certs in my time. I did the first when I was17 years old and to be honest, it didn’t mean very much to me at the time. I completed the other two as a mature student (in my twenties), because I decided to go to college. I might never have succeeded in my return to education, had it not been for the experience of completing that first Leaving Cert, when I was 17. Later, I completed a degree. I have been teaching for the past 15 years, as well as doing an interesting variety of other skilled work.
What all this has thought me is that education is (or should be) all about creating options and that life is a serious of choices and challenges. Life also involves a lot of “trial and error” and there is nothing wrong with that. Every experience in life (including the exam process) has the potential to educate us and you can never have too much education, whatever its source.
Everybody who is doing the Leaving Cert should be allowed to get on with it, without all this annual media cackle. – Yours, etc,
TIM BUCKLEY,
Cork.