Good at sport? Then ‘jump the queue for college place’

LEAVING cert pupils should be able to use their sporting skills to boost their chances of getting the college place they want, a Fine Gael senator believes.

Senator Joe O’Reilly said students who do extra ‘sporting and cultural activities’ could get an extra 30 points that would help them leapfrog less active teenagers.

And those who demonstrate ‘civic community and social awareness’ should be able to get 50 extra points.

‘I believe, to make the examination more reflective of the character of the student, 80 points should be set aside and allocated for the rounded personal development of the student,’ said Mr O’Reilly.

The points should be awarded by a panel of teachers, chaired by the career guidance teacher, and including a member of school management. ‘I believe this would lead to more rounded students leaving our education system, which would in turn benefit our society,’ he said. The Gaisce award could also be examined to see if it could be incorporated into the system, he said.

His call comes as Education Minister Joe McHugh confirmed the team to review the decision to make history an optional subject for the Junior Cert. The are due to report to him by the end of March.

The decision last year to allow pupils drop the subject was criticised at the time, with Michael D Higgins declaring his ‘profound concern with the new junior cycle, in which history is now no longer a core subject’.

Just weeks after he was appointed Education Minister, Mr McHugh told delegates at the Fine Gael ard fheis in November that he was ordering a review of the move.

He added that when we are talking ‘about our future we have to know about our past’. Mr McHugh told Ryan Tubridy on RTÉ Radio yesterday: ‘At a personal level, and as somebody who has really, really started to understand history through my re-learning of Irish in 2014, it’s more important now than ever that we put our history to the forefront.’

However, he was keen to stress that department officials, and those from the National Council for Curriculum Assessment, who are carrying out the review, should have the time and space to ‘come up with a sensible approach to this’.

He added that he does not want to ‘predetermine’ the outcome of their review.

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