The universities are coming under increasing pressure to recognise the Leaving Cert Vocational Programme (LCVP) as a means of entry to third level. Concerned educators have been arguing for years that the traditional Leaving Cert is largely a memory test - students are spoonfed information which they regurgitate in their exams. People with good memories and good essay writing skills do well, but people with important vocational and practical abilities lose out and gain no credit.
While the Institutes of Technology have signalled that they will recognise the LCVP's link modules, so far the universities have failed to do so. There is concern among educators, too, that unless the LCVP is recognised by the universities it will be regarded by students and parents as having a lower status than the traditional Leaving Cert.
Universities should recognise the weaknesses inherent in the current admissions' procedures and respond to the Department of Education and Science's request that the three link modules of the LCVP be accepted "for points purposes". So says Sister Teresa McCormack of the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI).
"Historically there has been a reluctance on the part of third-level colleges to move away from their reliance on external examinations (as a means of college entry)," she says. "Colleges face a challenge to give weight in their selection decisions to a much wider range of human qualities, achievements and experience." Recognition of the three link modules - in enterprise education, preparation for work and work experience - by the universities would in a small way prove their willingness to take change on board.
Dr Aine Hyland, UCC's Professor of Education, notes: "There is concern in the universities that there is a need to ensure that young people have a variety of skills other than strictly academic ones - including the very skills that are emphasised in the LCVP." It's ironic, she notes, that the colleges are reluctant to give the LCVP their imprimatur.
IT is, however, likely that the universities are concerned that the LCVP was originally developed without any third-level input and was validated by the NCVA. Difficulties arise from the fact that the LCVP link modules represent a completely new programme to which the usual academic assessment standards cannot be applied. Under the Universities Act, colleges have the authority to set their own entry requirements and would oppose any attempts to have changes foisted upon them. The universities' professors of education have advised the Conference of Heads of Irish Universities (CHIU)'s registrars' group to recognise a distinction achieved in the link-modules as the equivalent of a grade C on the Leaving Cert higher papers. Meanwhile, the registrars group has met with Department of Education and Science officials on a number of occasions to clarify issues. "The issue is a matter of serious import," says a CHIU spokesperson, "and is still being considered, but no resolution has yet been reached."
