‘Relief but no surprise’ as Leaving Cert exams cancelled
AS IRELAND comes to terms with the historic decision to cancel the Leaving Certificate exams, Gorey students and their teachers have welcomed the decision.
Both Principal Michael Finn and sixth year student Conor Brennan of Gorey Community School said that in the end they weren’t surprised by the move.
Conor is Student Council President and hopes to study law and politics at UCD after his Leaving Certificate. He said, at the end of the day, the Leaving Certificate is about fairness.
‘This cancellation is what the majority of students would have wanted. From the amount of people I’ve spoke to – from teachers, parents, priests and religious leaders to older people – they were all in favour. At the end of the day the Leaving Certificate is about fairness and fairness has just gone out the window especially with the digital divide. Some teachers don’t have access to the internet.
‘Without public health advice, I couldn’t see it proceeding. During the exams you have over 60,000 students, 20,000 invigilators and another 20,000 students sitting outside the doors, I didn’t think so’.
As school leaders come to terms with the new marking system, which will see school principals sign off on grades in the third stage, Michael Finn said it brings new responsibility.
‘The system being introduced, I’m confident that it’ll be robust, transparent and fair. In the overall circumstances of the situation that we find ourselves in, this is the best possible outcome. It’s a big responsibility, but it’s one that I’ll be taking very seriously as I’ll be signing off on students’ futures’.
Mr Finn said that the running of the exams would have been challenging.
‘Given the current state of the crisis, I really was at a loss to see how we were going to manage having students in. We have a large school and we would have had 250 students in for two weeks in July being taught by teachers. We were thinking creatively about how we’d do it, spreading people out and reducing numbers as much as possible but it would still create significant risks. With the numbers we have, you’re going to have both students and teachers with underlying health conditions or indeed those who come from a home where someone lives with an elderly person or someone with underlying health conditions. The logistics of trying to run the Leaving Cert while observing social distancing, the challenges were going to be quite significant’.
Although Conor was critical about a lack of communication from the Department of Education, with opposition TDs as well as students, Mr Finn said that the Department has communicated well with schools.
‘I feel the Minister for Education has been put in a very difficult position. I know he has come in for criticism recently but I think, given the circumstances, I feel he’s made the best decision possible,’ said Mr Finn.
‘This is unprecedented, there’s no manual to tell you how to navigate your way out of this. The channels of communication have been excellent and our main source of communication has been with the Association of Community and Comprehensive Schools (ACCS), our management body, who are being informed by the Department. So far we’ve had very good direction from the department and the ACCS and I know that we’re going to continue to get that direction throughout the course of this process’.
Both agreed that there has been a mixed response to this development from students, teachers and parents.
‘There are many students out there who want to sit the exams. They’ve worked hard, they could be the kind of students who work well under pressure and have really pushed the boat out in terms of their work output in February and March and they feel they could perhaps be disadvantaged by this process that’s being put in place,’ said Mr Finn.
‘Teachers are professional individuals, they’ve gone to college and that needs to be respected. It’s up to teachers now to show themselves up that they can do this in a fair way with the respect that they deserve,’ said Conor Brennan.
Conor said that it has been difficult to continue studying as normal during the crisis.
‘It’s very hard to motivate yourself when the goal posts are being moved quite often and there’s also speculation that the Leaving Cert won’t happen. Some people say it’s easier to study because you’re not seeing anyone but it’s the complete opposite, it makes it very difficult to study.
‘There’s a lot more to the Leaving Cert than two weeks of exams. Your whole graduation from school and the kind of camaraderie and spirit of your friends helps you through one of the most difficult and stressful times of your life. The carpet has been taken out from under us as we can’t see our friends, we can only leave our house for essential journeys unless within our five kilometres for exercise.
‘Of course I was thinking ahead to sitting the Leaving Cert but at the end of the day public health advice and protecting the lives of others is the most important thing. If it needs to be cancelled, cancel it. I’d rather save the lives of others than do a Leaving Cert exam’.
Both agreed that the year 2020 could be a defining moment in changes in education.
‘I think this is going to change the way we work because of the amount of technologies and initiatives that are out there now that I didn’t know existed,’ said Mr Finn.
‘We have transition year students now who are doing paired reading with first year students online. The staff members can move in and out to monitor what’s going on. The response has been wonderful, people have adapted very well. We had a few teething problems initially but we have it sorted now that students and teachers are working to their timetable, most teachers are teaching classes live using the Teams software. Overall been a really positive experience.
‘Obviously we want to be back and there’s no substitute for being back in the school on so many levels, but I think it is going to adjust and change for the better the way we work’.
Conor said: ‘I think we need to move away from the Leaving Cert as we know it and move into a more continual assessment basis which would involve up to 50% of marks being awarded in fifth year. Those should be marked externally with grades given out by the State Examinations Commission’.