Leaving Cert must be transformed, says minister
August 2, 2013
Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has signalled that the Leaving Certificate will be overhauled just like the Junior Certificate, as the education system was criticised as “unsustainable” amid fears of a “slide into mediocrity”. Mr Quinn said the “proliferation” of CAO courses was for the benefit of colleges, and not students.
“Just as the Junior Certificate is being abolished, the Leaving Cert must also be transformed,” he told the Mac Gill Summer school.
“The pressures on our Leaving Cert students are immense. This is, in part, caused by the proliferation of CAO courses — not designed to give students greater choice, but to create greater competition between courses — to the benefit of the colleges, not the students. This trend unfortunately continues.”
He said in 2000 there were 44 higher education institutions in the CAO offering 387 level 8 honours degree courses, but for the coming year, that figure had risen further to 919 courses in 45 institutions.
He said: “Some of the divisions between courses are questionable to say the least.”
The minister also said while changes to the Junior Certificate would be “uncomfortable” for some, choices needed to be made.
He said students needed to be able to make a choice and subjects, such as history, could not be compulsory. Some historians have made strong arguments for ensuring a prominent role for history in the secondary cycle.
Earlier, Mr Quinn said: “If you make history compulsory, why not make science compulsory, if you make science compulsory why not make geography compulsory? You have a compulsory curriculum. I think young people should be able to make a choice, I mean, in the replacement of the Junior Cert there will be an examination in a new format of examination for eight subjects as distinct from the 11 they do currently in the Junior Cert and we want young people to actually exercise choice.
“I don’t think compulsion is the way to go.”
President of Dublin City University, Prof Brian MacCraith, said one model Ireland could emulate was that of the Finnish government of the early 90s, which ploughed money into its education system following a severe recession.
He also claimed the current Leaving Certificate was inadequate for priming students for third-level and beyond.
“Many of the problems we are now facing arise from the incoherence in our approach and they become very evident at the transition points, eg, from primary school to secondary and, especially, from secondary to third level,” he said.
“Surely it should be relatively straightforward to agree on the overall outcomes desired from our education system and to align these objectives at every stage along the education continuum? In this context, it is somewhat surprising, shocking even, that, currently, there is no overall strategy in place for our education system.”
He also demanded the introduction of a new strategy for digital learning and said while some changes at secondary level were welcome, more needed to be done.
www.irishexaminer.com
Foilsithe ar Gaelport.com 02 Lúnasa 2013
The Irish Examiner – Noel Baker
