They’ve all got an opinion but no one asks the students
IF the debacle around the Leaving Certificate has exposed anything, it is the absolute hypocrisy behind the annual hand-wringing over the stress that the exam causes.
Every year we hear debate over why we have an end-of-school examination so bad that it causes nightmares into adulthood and what should be done about it? (In mine I’m not naked but I do sit outdoors in the schoolyard and no one told me it was coming up so I haven’t a notion).
Continuous assessment and less emphasis on attending university are the rote answers if you are interested.
But this year, in addition to the normal Leaving Cert stress, there is the added pressure of not even knowing when it’s on — a vague July or August-ish has been floated.
Imagine telling a horse trainer or an athlete they had a big race coming up, so they need to train but you can’t tell them exactly when it is.
Many students — across the digital divide — are unable to properly access online or other learning in the run up to it. No clarity on when the results might be available or when you might actually get to start college. If you were hoping to go abroad to college, as huge numbers of Irish second-level students do, forget it. And it seems no one gives a damn.
All of this is also against a backdrop worthy of a YA dystopian novel. Borders closed. Airlines grounded. Global lockdown. Thousands dead and people wearing facemasks to go out foraging for bread and milk.
Not forgetting that the Department of Education plans will wipe out a summer break for students this year and, if college starts late enough, next year too. Which will put huge financial strain on students who fund themselves through university.
Yes, if previous years’ Leaving Cert students were stressed, this year’s crop should be having a nervous breakdown. And yet they’re not.
They are maturely staying at home, engaging in social distancing, studying and politely asking to have their voices heard about what can or should happen to this year’s most important
State exam.
But no one is listening. In surveys of second-level students themselves, estimated grades were the preferred option at this stage — but no one consulted students’ organisations.
Instead Minister McHugh announced he had talked to unions and education experts about what will happen and that seems to me to be making this about the wrong people. I don’t care what teaching unions think about this — everyone’s work practices have had a coach and horses driven through them in this pandemic.
I only care about what is best for these kids. And I don’t happen to believe that forcing them to live with the consequences of this time — so that they get no proper summer break till the end of second year in college — or they possibly miss out on a full year’s wage off the end of their careers because they were such late starters, is the best thing at all.
Most of us can barely remember what we got in the LC. And the truth is most people view it as a means to getting into college. The entire focus of what should be happening now should be about seeing that these young adults get to start on their chosen paths this September — come hell or high water.
And there’s no reason why we have to remain so wedded to the idea of them sitting this exam. The Bac has been cancelled in France. The A-levels and GCSEs are cancelled in the UK.
Estimated grades are being rolled out around the world. And, yes, we have no culture of that here but nor do we have a culture where two thirds of us work from home — wearing the work mullet for video calls (shirt on the top, PJs on the bottom). Or one where doctors treat patients down the phone. There is no ‘can’t be done’ — there is only how to do it.
And there are oodles of ways. Use average grades over the past two years. Calculate average differences between mocks and LC and award that on basis of mocks. Set open book exams where every student has a number of days to do a series of essays at home. Pick a way and apply it across the board.
Yes, some will do a little better and some will do a little worse than they might have in a seated exam. Yes some will say it is unfair — but fairness is a subjective concept — and if it is applied using the same system for all it remains collectively fair.
But crucially it allows this bunch of teens to move forward with their lives. And not have them put on hold in some slavish devotion to an exam — which doesn’t even suit all students and is probably in need of reform anyway. Plus there’s no plan B. If we get to July and we’re still in the throes of Covid-19, what then? What if we still can’t have mass gatherings? Or what if a large proportion of kids are symptomatic or bereaved? Just say — “Ahh, sure you can go to college next year...”
So no one attends third level in 2020 and two years of secondary school students compete for places in 2021? Or will we try and cobble together estimated grades at that point? Having put these kids through 12 months of sixth year — just for the craic?
Lest we forget, these kids have already missed out on a lot. Sixth year is an ending to their school life. It’s about more than just exams.
There are graduations, retreats, yearbooks and the saying goodbye to their school and the many seminal friendships that they’ve made there. They’ve had no proper closure on this chapter of their lives and it’s hard on them.
And they have done it for others. It isn’t impossible that a secondary school student could get very sick from Covid-19 — but in the main they don’t. They are not in an ‘at risk’ group.
They are in lockdown to help the rest of us. The least we others should do is try to help them.
I no longer really care what my daughter, who’s in the class of 2020, gets in her Leaving. She had Covid-19 in March and it put other worries into perspective.
And there’s always a way to do whatever you want irrespective of the LC. But let these poor kids move on with their lives. That — more than the exam — is what’s important here. And this current solution is the wrong one.
‘I no longer care what my daughter gets’