Students ignored and unheard in exam row
BY hook or by crook. Definition: to do something by any means necessary. Example: ‘This year’s state exams will go ahead by hook or by crook.’ In this case neither the hook nor the crook were sufficient, the job was left unfinished, abandoned without explanation.
It was April 2 when Leo Varadkar informed the 126,000 students due to sit their Leaving and Junior Certs in 2020 that they best keep studying, that their exams were still happening ‘by hook or by crook’.
Now, a little over five weeks later, that statement of intent has proven as reliable as a drunken marriage proposal. As of last Friday afternoon the Leaving Cert is definitely not going ahead (the Junior Cert having long since fallen by the wayside).
This time, lest there by any doubt, a plan has been put in place, one based on knowledge rather than bombast. This plan will see the exams replaced by ‘calculated grades’, a type of continuous assessment similar to that used in third-level institutions.
When asked why this decision had been made, why the previous plan to hold the exams on July 29 had been crumpled up and thrown away, Minister for Education Joe McHugh said, ‘compelling advice’ had made proceeding with the Leaving Cert ‘impossible’.
Meanwhile, according to the roadmap issued a week previously, by July 29 hairdressers will be open, as will créches, preschools, museums, churches and galleries. The hurling will be back too, as will the soccer, and the rugby.
By August 10, we’ ll be in the cinemas, the pubs, and schools, yes schools, will have reopened. It would appear that the person advising Mr McHugh has yet to meet the one who drew up said map.
We may never know who pulled the trigger on this, who told the Minister and his superior that this was the best course of action. But I think we can state with a certain degree of confidence that it wasn’t an active school teacher, a run-of-the-mill educator whose entire work life has been thrown upside-down by the government’s dillying and dallying.
Nor for that matter will it have been a school Principal. They, like the parents, like their teachers, first heard about this on RTÉ News.
The students? Don’t make me laugh. Everyone knows they don’t matter. Sure they’re only kids for god’s sake. They probably won’t even vote in the next election, will probably have emigrated by then, it’s okay to mess them about a bit.
That’s the most staggering thing of all, how the 61,000 students due to sit their Leaving Cert have been, for the most part, completely ignored by those making the decision.
What level of arrogance does that take? How conceited must one be to act on behalf of such a large body of people without seeking their counsel? Yes, we all know the final say must always be based on science, that the welfare of the nation is at stake here and public health overrides everything else.
But save for a few surveys published by the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union (ISSU) there’s been little sign that those most directly impacted by this decision were consulted.
As it is, after weeks of uncertainty, weeks of studying from home - in some cases without broadband, without a laptop - students are being told ‘ah it’s okay now, lads, enjoy your summer, sorry about that’.
Those who fretted and panicked about being fully prepared are now left scratching their heads, wondering what this means for them. The others, the ones who confidently predicted the Leaving would never go ahead, are now feeling decidedly smug.
One would hope this new form of assessment won’t unduly hinder students who would have excelled in the traditional examination process, that all those who deserve to do well, do so. But I wouldn’t bet on it.
Minister McHugh has already admitted the late change leaves the Department of Education legally exposed; parents are being warned not to contact teachers who must now play the roles of judge, jury and executioner. In other words, there’s a storm brewing, one of the government’s own making. And right at its centre, unheard and ignored: 61,000 young Irish people.