Decision-time at Junior Cert: it's the first major hurdle of life

IT'S like going over Becher's Brook for many 15-and 16-year-olds. The end of the great Junior Cert cycle is in sight. The exams are in full swing, the programmes have been completed, and many difficult decisions about next year have already been made.

Most of the 68,900 students doing the Junior Cert this summer have more or less made up their minds about the subjects they will do next September. They know if they are going into Transition Year or into the Leaving Cert cycle. Many guidance counsellors believe that this educational juncture is the first major hurdle in life.

As well as doing the exams themselves, students must decide on a career direction. Decisions made now could have major implications for the future. Do they want to become scientists or linguists? If they concentrate on science, will they have to drop Spanish or German? Which would be more beneficial? What subjects do they love best of all? What are they good at? What does the teacher say? What do their parents want?

In the run-up to their Junior Cert exams, students must grapple with choices ranging over subjects, career requirements, aptitudes, likes, dislikes, long- term ambitions, hopes and dreams. It's not easy. At the end of the school year, major decisions demanding action can threaten their composure.

It's a tricky business a case of rounding Cape Horn in a catamaran - although some may feel they're going around the Cape in a life-boat. "Every year I see young people making ill-informed decisions," says Ms Mary Coughlan, guidance counsellor at Ardscoil Mhuire in Bruff, Co Limerick. "They make them without being informed. They don't do enough research into the career area that they wish to enter. It's a major factor."

It's a difficult time of the year for all of them, she says. "They're under that kind of pressure with exams and all the teachers are trying to get the course finished.

Students often choose subjects for all the wrong reasons, says Ms Coughlan, such as the teacher is good or the Leaving Cert points are easy to get or they want to do a lot of different things.

This year 80 students will sit their Junior Cert at Ardscoil Mhuire. Ms Coughlan says that, at this stage, students are in general "still very young, they don't have good decision-making skills. Yet it's the first major life decision."

The long-term consequences of their choices cannot be played down, she believes. For instance, those who don't do honours maths "may as well forget engineering." An open night for parents each year at the school is a valuable and rewarding exercise in disseminating information.

Mr Joe Hanratty, guidance counsellor at Our Lady's Secondary School in Castleblaney, Co Monaghan, also feels that the end of the school year is a very important and demanding time for students and parents. The implications of subject choice after the Junior Cert can influence the college that they get into, he says. In a town like Castleblaney where students are equidistant from Dublin and Belfast, they will look at Jordanstown and Queen's as well as at UCD.

"In choosing medical courses in the Republic, generally most colleges will accept a student with one science subject but in Northern Ireland it's compulsory to have two," says Mr Hanratty. These factors must be taken on board in any decision about subject choice.

"These are things which can have serious implications in their choice of career. When I interview them I would invite parents and guardians to come in with them because this is information which parents need to have. "They have to be involved. Generally speaking the response is very good. It's an opportunity to emphasise that parents' involvement is important. It's also good because sometimes young teenagers may not want to involve their parents."

Mr Kevin Naughton is guidance counsellor at Athlone Community College. "It's a tough time and a worrying time," he says. "The pupils don't understand some of the subjects. We would advise them to keep their options open. At that young age they haven't read any prospectus. They have a different view of the world of work. It will be very different by the time they get to the Leaving Cert."