Should we consider end to State exams?

THE State examinations have started in earnest this week, with Junior and Leaving Cert exams kicking off on Wednesday morning with English.

A comfortable start for some – a more worrying entry into the 20 days of tests for others.

But there is no easy way to begin an examination that could predict how the next few years of your life may go – at least when it comes to the Leaving Certificate.

For the past two years at least, those students have been gearing themselves up for this month, and the papers which will decide what direction they may take in September.

For many, a written exam is simply an inevitable ending to their many years of learning and one they will admirably cope with, albeit reluctantly in many cases.

For others, it is one example of the many huge stresses that society places on our young people who have not yet made it out into the ‘big’ world.

It is, unfortunately, however, the product of the theory that ‘one size fits all’ – and that it is a fair way of assessing an individual’s abilities around certain subject matter.

That their abilities in these narrow criteria may vary does not seem to come into the thinking behind our educational system – at least not in the mainstream system, as dictated by the State’s Department of Education.

It does not seem to allow for the increasingly diverse abilities and make-up of our young people today.

While many excel in the written word – or indeed the practical element of examinations – several young people find this system is the complete antithesis of their way of problem-solving.

Time and time again we champion, in adults, a creativity and a ‘thinking outside the box’ approach to life, but we don’t seem to be able to cater for that creativity or individualism in young people.

The curriculum of many second levels schools leaves little room to negotiate beyond the textbook options, or drive towards the ultimate goal – passing the State exam.

But what of those young people who do not thrive in such environments, but yet have so much to offer society?

In the past, students who didn’t fall into line with the demands of the classroom, or who were not encouraged to see new ways of analysing subjects or finding solutions to puzzles, were deemed ‘less than’ or ‘other’ – words which nowadays are unacceptable in the realm of education – and indeed any realm.

But while our language and vocabulary has progressed in line with the knowledge that every child, every young adult, is different and reacts differently to any given situation, our education system has not quite caught up with that progress.

This week, all over Ireland, young people will endeavour to rise above the stress they are labouring under each morning and afternoon. Stress that has been placed on their young heads because we have not yet found a more equitable way to measure their suitability for the next stage of work or education.

Those who are mentally and psychologically adapted to the system will, of course, benefit from its narrow parameters. The rest will struggle and hope to find some way of ‘fitting in’.

In Finland, there is only one end-of-school exam for students, and the emphasis is never on ‘tests’ as any indicator of the ability of a student.

And yet 93% of Finns graduate from high schools, and 66% go on to third level – the highest rate in the European Union.

Nobody would accuse the Finns of being ‘under-educated’ and yet their theory is to educate the student about learning, not about passing exams.

While a change in the Irish system would take decades to implement, there’s no time like the present to at least start a debate around the pros and cons of State exams.

It might be too late for the Class of ’24, but it might be a nice way to honour the students, most of whom, by the way, never sat a Junior Cert, thanks to Covid. And it doesn’t seem to have dimmed their appetite for learning.

Elections have left us divided

THIS week’s local and European elections have come at a time when the country was never so divided. Pollsters reported last weekend that the independents have been surging up the rankings, as other, more established parties, have suffered as a result. While it is encouraging to see that age-old voting patterns can be shaken up, let’s hope that the shake-up is for the right reasons, and affords us all an outcome which can bring us closer together, rather than further apart.