Need for Change?

Manc Red

The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has called for the Leaving Cert to be overhauled, saying the exam is in "dire" need of change.

The union said students are being forced to do too many exams in too short a period of time leading to high stress and reduced performance.

USI president Gary Redmond said the high failure rate in science and maths in this year’s exam needed to be examined.

"The question of why only 50 per cent of teachers are qualified to teach maths, needs to be looked at," he said.

"A new Leaving Certificate system of continuous assessment should be introduced for a fairer assessment of the performance of secondary schoolstudents over a longer period of time."

Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn said he had given Seán Sherlock, Minister of State for Research the task of looking at how to improve results in the subject.

Speaking in Clifden Co Galway this afternoon, Mr Quinn also expressed hope that the new maths syllabus, Project Maths, would address the problem.

"The poor maths results do concern me. We have a problem here. This was recognised by the previous government and Project Maths was the result of a reform of the maths syllabus. It is now in its second year and positive results are coming from it," he said.

"We must ensure that the concerns of are met by reform in how the subject is taught. There is also a role for the points system. The effort required to get a high result in some subjects is less than in other subjects. Mary Coughlan persuaded univerisites to add a bonus of 25 additional points in maths. If this doesn't work we may need to look at additional points for science and additional supports for the teaching of the subjects."

High failure rates in maths and science – and relatively poor results in business subjects – are the most striking trends in this year’s Leaving Cert results.

The results also highlight the two-tier nature of Irish education. While ordinary level students registered high failure rates, higher level students achieved record results, raising renewed fears about grade inflation.

The percentage of students gaining an A, B or C at higher level is at its highest ever level (77 per cent) and up from 64 per cent in 1992. Some 43 per cent of students scored an A or B at higher level, up from 27 per cent in 1992.

The increase in grades will raise renewed questions about the nature of the Leaving Cert examinations. The most recent ranking from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development showed an alarming slippage in Irish literacy and numeracy levels – but this trend is not reflected in exam results published yesterday.

In a now familiar trend, 10 per cent of students failed maths at ordinary level. Overall, 4,367 students failed maths across all levels, making them ineligible for many third-level courses. Results were marginally better among the 1,900 students who took the new “user-friendly’’ Project Maths course in 24 schools. But the Government will be disappointed by the poor take-up for higher level maths in these schools. Only 16 per cent took the subject at higher level, the same number who took the mainstream exam.

Failure rates were also high in physics (8 per cent), chemistry (9 per cent ) and biology (8 per cent). Business (7 per cent) and accounting (6 per cent) were also among the minority of higher level subjects with relatively high failure rates.

Among high achievers, 10 students achieved nine A1s, while 141 students secured the so-called “perfect” Leaving, with six A1s or 600 points.

Other features of this year’s results include:

* Only 70 per cent of higher level students secured an A, B or C in biology, one of the lowest honours rates for any higher level subject;

* The number of students taking Irish in the exam (44,300) is down over 1,200 since 2009; it is now at record low levels. While the subject is compulsory, increasing numbers are gaining exemptions or not showing for the exam;

* The honours rate (those gaining A, B or C at higher level) remains very high in Art (82 per cent) and music (94 per cent).

* An exam helpline is available at freephone 1800 946 942 (Republic of Ireland) and 003531 6758435 from Northern Ireland. Lines are open from 8am to 7pm today until Tuesday August 23rd.

Last night, the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland, which represents more than 600 US companies in Ireland, criticised the absence of “discernable improvements” in science subjects.

Source: Irish Times

So is there a need for change in the Leaving Cert?

If yes, what sort of changes would you like to see?

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

Irish = optional.

Manc Red

Irish is still seen as our first official language in the constitution. It's very unlikely that will happen.

Manc Red

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdBwo0H1eKc

dambarude

It needs to change, but not at the cost of the transparency and relative fairness of the current Leaving Cert. The idea that's been floated of teachers correcting their students on a widescale basis would be the ruin of it IMO.

pajero12

Yes, 14 years of education come down to 2 weeks in June as a 17/18/19 year old. Continuous assessment for the win!

Skintwin

The leaving cert definitely needs a decisive change. Either stop making it so predictable (cutting out the question of 'Tutorial' schools) or change it completely to continuous assessment.
It's ridiculous that fourteen years of education comes down to two weeks in the summer as an (average) 18 year old. The amount of pressure that is put on sixth years by friends, teachers and parents means that they run themselves into the ground and are completely burned out by the time they get the pre results, never mind by the time they get to the actual exams.
The predictability of the leaving cert is utterly ridiculous. I have to admit, I was pretty happy with it at the time, but I still covered all my bases. (I learned Kavanagh and Yeats as well as Boland) There will always be teachers who have the uncanny knack of hitting the nail on the head when it comes to the content of the paper, but at least by making it less predictable the Department of Education would give everyone an equal chance, instead of giving the chances to those who can afford to enrol in 'Tutorial Colleges' where they learn only predicted sections and specific answers by rote and walk out with an A1, while someone who has a good grasp of the entire course only comes out eith a B or C.
It's definitely time that Rory Quinn did something about it.

NSNO

pajero12 wrote: »

Yes, 14 years of education come down to 2 weeks in June as a 17/18/19 year old. Continuous assessment for the win!

How is continuous assessment fair? It's not objective in the slightest. The oversight procedures needed to make it so would be prohibitively expensive.

Whatever you say about the LC as is, it is still fair for everyone. Everyone is on as equal a footing as is possible and the marking is fair and the process is clear.

The LC gives a direct return on investment. You get what you put in.

irish_man

CA would be too harsh IMO. You would have exams all the time that would add up to your final grade. This would mean that there would be constant pressure on the student from the moment he enters the senior cycle.

I think a weighted points system would work out best. For example, if a student was going for science, maths and the science subjects would be worth more than french or irish. I think that would be the most fair system.

implausible

Skintwin wrote: »

The predictability of the leaving cert is utterly ridiculous.

There will always be teachers who have the uncanny knack of hitting the nail on the head when it comes to the content of the paper, but at least by making it less predictable the Department of Education would give everyone an equal chance, instead of giving the chances to those who can afford to enrol in 'Tutorial Colleges' where they learn only predicted sections and specific answers by rote and walk out with an A1, while someone who has a good grasp of the entire course only comes out either a B or C.

Predictable? Are you mad? The 33 texts on the comparative change every year as do the eight poets and the single texts. What more do you want - not telling the teachers what is on the course at all?

The tutorial colleges do not have a monopoly on predictions and unfortunately, on rote-learning; neither do they have an insider knowledge e.g. 4 of the 5 poets I taught this year came up on paper II. It is not only students who enrol in grind schools who get A1s, to suggest this is to undermine the achievements of all the students and teachers in non-grind schools.

To be honest, I wouldn't change English, except to suggest a small assignment-based component. Irish, in my opinion, should be retained as compulsory, but only the language part. Irish literature and culture should be a separate optional subject, with project work being part of the assessment.

However, I firmly disagree with teachers grading their own students' work. This is not due to laziness, but to my doubts about being impartial when judging the work of students I have taught for 6 years.

Wonderstruck

irish_man wrote: »

CA would be too harsh IMO. You would have exams all the time that would add up to your final grade. This would mean that there would be constant pressure on the student from the moment he enters the senior cycle.

I think a weighted points system would work out best. For example, if a student was going for science, maths and the science subjects would be worth more than french or irish. I think that would be the most fair system.

According to my French grinds teacher, that's how they do it in France. (So no reason why it couldn't be wheeled out over here)

bscm

Irish should be optional or taught differently, we should be able to speak it, not be able to describe the sanctimonious society of 1960's Ireland in 2 pages or more.

Put half of the exams at Christmas or something because sitting 6-11 subjects in 2 or so weeks is too stressful and decreases your chances of performing to your actual ability.

History should be broken down. We should be tested on short answer questions as well as essays instead of 3 "can you recall these 5 years of economic/social problems in X?".

The Business marking scheme should stop changing so drastically. A perfect answer one year would get half marks for the exact question another year.

Noodleworm

Id like to see more use of continual assessment in the leaving cert. Less pressure on you with exams. or maybe two exams, each with half the curriculum, therefore , less to learn.

But manily Id like to see a focus on more non traditional ays of getting to third level. Not all students learn the same way an the LC is really only suited to those who can just learn of a lot of information, and recycle it back onto paper.
schemes like HEAR have proved that kids who don't get the points can still do brilliantly in college once they get there as its a different way of learning, and its something their interested in.
PLCs, repeating subjects, Mature students, never get much focus, there should be more help getting kids to 3rd level, with, or without the LC.