Leaving Cert 2022 and whingeing students

Would drop out rates be associated with students taking up courses they didn’t want, or would it be due to the students being inferior to pre-Covid entrants?

It seems some idiots think that because students got predicted grades over the last two years, they are in some way inferior to pre-Covid students. Predicated grades was the rising tide that lifted virtually all boats, not some, if the rise in grades is to be used as a metric.

For years there has been calls to reform the LC away from a “one shot” exam to continual assessment in conjunction with an exam. And while the hybrid system used over the last two years was not what was envisaged, it did give teachers input into what they saw from students over the entirety on the LC cycle. Now however, instead of embracing the opportunity to make the grades more about performance over two years, some on here are calling for a reversal to what is, a glorified memory test apart from subjects which involve problem solving.

Right decision IMO, this year's class have had some disruption but that's offset by the increased options on the papers. You can't blame the students for wanting an easier path but it has to move back towards normal at some point and that may as well be now IMO

"The State provides an education".... I can never read that sentence and not laugh!

It's an indoctrinated entrance exam to an institution most will never finish even if the get in.

What is the nonsense in your last sentence? Have you anything remotely resembling a statistic to back that up?

Colleges really really really really really really really really dislike failing people. All they want is to take your registration fee and give you a pretty meaningless piece of paper at the end of it. Failing people is bad for business, so they almost never do it. And they want as many people to get in to use their vending machine as possible - hence the continued expansion and bs new courses.

Well what else does it do?!

And students dropping out is nothing to do with colleges not wanting to fail them - its this forced idea that they MUST get into college NO MATTER WHAT resulting in them taking a course the probably shouldn't take in the first place.

This is not education.

Well, we'll agree on that anyway - this notion that students MUST go to college is damaging. And it will become worse with all these bs "Technological universities" - at least the ITs were ostensibly directed at more practical studies; I fear they'll lose that and simply devolve into just the "theoretical" stuff, but at a lower level.

Companies and parents are feeding this notion that college degrees are meaningful, and the colleges are laughing all the way to the bank. The life experience is good, sure, but you'd learn more on youtube etc. in a fraction of the time. I thought the pandemic would go some way to changing things in that regard, but seemingly not yet...

Also, the government got out ahead of this problem and publis

The issue here is that the Govt has said LCert grades will be in line with last years ie inflated! So we’re looking at another year of high points for many courses. They’ve kicked the can down the road, at some stage we will have to return to ‘normal’ grades before the LCert loses all credibility

I agree. If 2022 results are lower than 2021, any 2021 student applying to the CAO this year should have their 2021 results reduced correspondingly. Every year results are adjusted to fit into the bell curve the Dept of Ed thinks is correct, so it shouldnt be a problem adjusting 2021 results. Yes the 2021 students suffered through 5th & 6th year and they had higher grade inflation than 2020.

There was some comments on radio yesterday of 2022 results being adjusted if the distribution curve didn't match that of 2021.

If 2023 exams have the same format as 2019, the the problem just repeats itself.

You do know that there used to be university matriculation entrance examinations up until the early 90’s, they were done away with as a waste of time and resources. They used to take place a week or two after the LC ended and had a slightly different syllables. Students used to be able to combine the results with the LC and apply using the best grades in each subject. Why would third level colleges take the retrograde step of reintroducing what was effectively a rerun of the LC?

Im struggling to see what peoples objections are to third level colleges admitting as many students as they possibly can. Is this not what was being called for? The opportunity for as many students as possible to further their education.

Yes, the "third-level education" bubble is still floating un-popped...

Fair point, didn't mean "most" literally. A quick scan tells me that the actual number is 25% which is still a pretty high number considering a mad stresssful scramble they went through to get there in the first place.

I'd also be curious to know what percentage of people that finished their courses went on to get employment in their chosen field and what percentage of those are actually happy with their professional lives.