‘They’re being set up to fail’
CHILDREN with disabilities are being ‘set up to fail’ the Leaving Cert after a school in Dublin said it would not teach Leaving Cert Applied in September, parents have said.
In light of this decision, parents have started protesting outside Clonturk Community College in Whitehall to have LCA reinstated.
LCA places much more emphasis on short-term goals, school attendance, classroom-based assessments and projects compared to the traditional Leaving Cert, which is heavily focused on the exam.
Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, parent Gerry Fallon, whose daughter Orla, 17, is in transition year at the school and has Down syndrome, said they were told in February the school would not be running LCA in the next academic year when Orla is due to start the senior cycle.
James Nolan, a student who has a range of complex disabilities, is also impacted. Mr Fallon said: ‘The traditional Leaving Cert is all that was offered to us... the children were being set up to fail by doing the Leaving Cert.’ The Irish Daily Mail contacted Clonturk Community College for comment yesterday.