It has been hard... But I’ve decided to sit three exams in June
EVEN though Leaving Cert students have until May to decide whether they will sit the State exam or accept accredited grades, schoolgirl Emer Neville has already made her decision.
The 17 year old, from Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, has selected the subjects she will do in the traditional Leaving Certificate and those for which she will opt instead to accept an accredited grade.
She explained: ‘I will opt for accredited grades in Maths, French, Business and Computer Science because I would be a bit nervous going into the exams for these subjects.
‘My sister did her Leaving Cert last year and she had all her courses finished. But I wouldn’t have three quarters of the course done in all of my subjects because we have missed so much.
‘Remote learning is not the same as being in the classroom.’
Emer – who hopes to go to university to study IT or media in UCC or NUIG – revealed her reasons for wanting to sit the Leaving Cert exam for English, Irish and History.
‘I went to a gaelscoil so I am fluent in Irish and I want to be able to do the oral exam and show how much Irish I have,’ she said. ‘I want to do the Leaving Cert exams for English and History because I want to be able to do the essays.’
Last week Education Minister Norma Foley announced that the Class of 2021 will have three different options of doing their final year exam.
The 60,000 sixth year students can do the traditional Leaving Cert exams, accept accredited grades or they can also decide on doing a combination of both. However, they will only have all these choices if the rate of Covid infection continues to decline and public health officials deem it safe for students to do their Leaving Cert exams in an examination hall.
The unprecedented proposal was announced after protracted negotiations with teachers’ trade unions,
Department of Education officials and second level school student representatives. But teachers have yet to vote on the proposal and precise details, such as how students will be awarded accredited grades.
According to Emer, since returning to school last autumn teachers and students assumed that the Leaving Cert results of 2021 would be based on accredited grades.
She said: ‘Every test I did I was thinking, is this test going to determine what grade I get in the Leaving Cert?
‘We are getting a lot more tests so teachers have the material they need to be able to grade us. It has been hard.’
Meanwhile, Emer’s twin brother
Conor is also doing his Leaving Certificate this year. But he has yet to decide which version of the exam he will do.