Leaving Cert
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20 August 2010
Tuesday evening last I attended the removal service for my secondary schools secretary Miss Rita Field. The removal presented me with an opportunity to talk to a few of my teachers, many of whom I haven’t spoken to since graduating in 2007. One thing that struck me as I drove home from the removal is how much I have changed as a person in those three years…I imagine that many of my teachers that knew me throughout my time in Christians wouldn’t recognise me in that regard now as a result. The main thing that struck me was that whilst I got a good education in CBC I only really grew and matured in University. And it is on that statement that this blog post originates.
My sister received her leaving cert results on Wednesday and now, along with 50,000+ teenagers, await CAO offers Monday next to see what path they are now destined to follow. The fact remains that the leaving cert and the system built around it is not a true and accurate barometer of intellectual ability. As mentioned above I know where I developed and it wasn’t secondary school.
With that the following question needs to be asked; are we happy spending resources on a ‘conveyor belt’ system of second level education, where intellectual freedom and creativity are sacrificed for the sake of a two week intensive recall memory exercise? I am convinced that Ireland as a society must now ask what we want our education sector to look like and what we want to achieve with it…It’s a debate that we need to have because without it the education sector and the future of the country as a whole is in a perilous state.
