Dancegate highlights value of impartial tests
IN A desperate attempt to refute allegations of cheating by wearing a vibrating device close to his private parts that sent signals about his next move, teen chess champion Hans Niemann volunteered to play naked. Food for thought, perhaps, for the world of Irish dancing so mired in scandal and rottenness that even the youngsters’ fancy costumes contain secret symbols about the identity of their dancing school and teachers.
Granted, mimicking Niemann’s offer would be a bit extreme but introducing a generic costume for all competitors might help Irish dancing clean up its act. It might also rein in parents who are daft enough to shell out thousands of euro on a costume. And it might soften the coughs of the teachers who, it appears from their pleading text messages to adjudicators, will stop at nothing to see their ‘child’ come out on top.
Fans pretend that the revelation of a global ring of corruption swindling parents out of thousands and featuring teachers so venal that they’d offer sex for trophies is a shock, given its wholesome image.
But it’s doubtful that any parent who has run the gauntlet of juvenile competitions, where judging is mostly subjective, is surprised.
I can’t be the only parent who has brought their children home from contests where the gongs seemed curiously shared between one coterie of individuals, with my part of the city going empty-handed.
The realisation that life isn’t fair, that victory can be less about talent and discipline than who you know is a valuable lesson for children, more important than a trophy.
It will help cushion the disappointments they’ll inevitably meet in life and ideally embolden them as adults to root out corruption if they can.
IT MIGHT also teach them to highly value contests where fairness is guaranteed, and results are not subject to cronyism or corruption. In a small country such as ours, creating a level playing field seems impossible, yet it’s contained in our State exams system. Granted, the State exams don’t account for the advantages of private grinds and schools which help well-off families bag the most col
lege places. That might be because you’d need more than eight H1s in the Leaving Cert to solve the deepseated problem of social inequality. Other than pouring more resources into Deis schools and creating more pathways into third-level for disadvantaged students, it’s hard to see what else the State can do.
As regards the actual exam, every student is treated the same. They are judged only on what they write down in their exam booklets – who they are doesn’t come into it. Yet despite this rare feat of impartiality, the traditional State exams are widely treated with an attitude bordering on contempt.
The Children’s Ombudsman Niall Muldoon says the Leaving Cert is a ‘traumatic’ experience for students that ‘can’t get worse’.
Last week, this newspaper
reported how 70,000 students are still waiting for their Junior Cert results with no word about when they will put out of their agony. It appears a shortage of examiners due to Covid, when the full exam system was put on hold, is behind the delay. But what signal does that send out except that the Junior Cert is not a priority and that the days of written exams are numbered?
THE end of written exams seems almost inevitable given how, under Norma Foley’s reforms, 40% of Leaving Cert results will be based on teacher-based continuous assessment and 60% on written papers. Although many of the finer details have to be ironed out, the Education Minister should beware of throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater.
For if Irish dancing guardians will bribe judges to get their little darlings onto the podium, what price 625 CAO points and their dream career? Pity the teachers who have to deal with them.
Niall Muldoon might lament the pressure on today’s school leavers but it’s nothing to what they will suffer under an assessment system rigged from the start.
➤➤ RATHER than telling the guest that she was not welcome, the Belfast woman who said to Kate Middleton ‘that Ireland belongs to the Irish’ should have demonstrated her opposition to the royal visit by staying away. With the prospect of a United Ireland on the distant horizon, her bad manners and pettiness risks alienating public opinion against the cause.
➤➤ PIERCE BROSNAN may owe his fame and fortune to playing James Bond but that doesn’t translate into any interest on his part in Daniel Craig’s successor. ‘I don’t care,’ he responded when asked about the next 007. At least he’s honest. In an industry whose leading men seem trained in bland PR speak so much so that they rarely say anything interesting, it’s refreshing to hear one imply that in Hollywood’s timehonoured tradition, they took on a role for money rather than art.
➤➤ FROM her lofty perch in the European Parliament, Clare Daly excoriated energy companies for ruthless profiteering during an energy crisis. Not one word of condemnation had she for the Russian tyrant whose actions are responsible for the extortionate prices. Staggering.