Rip it up and start again... now that’s a big test!
THE cold sweats, waking up in the middle of the night from the recurring nightmare that none of the right questions have come up.
And that’s just the Leaving Cert for parents!
Thank God then that it’s all over for us and we never have to go through that again.
Stephen Byrne’s parents do, though. Stephen is no ordinary repeat student either. He is 28, a top vlogger, RTÉ broadcaster,
LEAVING AGAIN
Thursday 10.15pm, RTÉ One and well, has nothing to prove to anyone. But himself! The Leaving Cert gets you like that.
Stephen, you see, threw away his Leaving Cert results without ever learning what he scored.
It is something that has nagged away at him ever since and he has taken the bold
decision to resit them... more sleepless nights, cold sweats.
Stephen reflects on what drove him to bin his education.
Ireland, even as recently as 2009, was a very different country from what it is today and Stephen admits that coming out as gay, which he did just four weeks before the Leaving, occupied his mind constantly.
He was also up and running as a vlogger, which was not as well understood as it is now, and he pursued that skill to the stage where he became a hit in the US, and RTÉ came calling on his return.
Leaving Again follows Stephen’s return to Clonkeen College, his interaction with the students of today and his former Careers Guidance teacher and how he copes with the twin pressures of work and studying for his Leaving, at 28.
So that means interviewing Oprah Winfrey before rushing back for classes! Stephen’s resit makes engaging television and shines a light on whether the Leaving is the best judge of a child’s skills and if it is a good gateway to work. Ryan Tubridy certainly doesn’t think so.
Whatever about that debate, Stephen Byrne becomes that rarest of Leaving Cert students... one who opens two sets of results nine years apart but at the same time. And teacher will be pleased, he’s improved!