Your education questions answered
My child has reported to me that one of his teachers is habitually using crude and offensive language in class. How should I deal with this situation?
As a teacher and guidance counsellor for over 25 years, I have seen the profound effect teachers have on their students. Past pupils will recount in vivid detail, individual incidents that occurred in class decades ago. These incidents can have been either a moment of inspiration or one that left them feeling undermined and hurt at a very deep level.
The vast majority of teachers discharge their responsibilities with the highest level of professionalism. Occasionally, however, an individual whose professionalism is open to question may acquire a teaching post.
Whatever the individual's circumstances, I would advise you to consult immediately with other parents in your child's class to establish, without doubt, the accuracy of the reported behaviour. If your child's accounts are confirmed, and it emerges that this behaviour is ongoing, I would suggest that you and other parents write collectively to the teacher in question, pointing out your deep unhappiness with the language your children are exposed to and demanding its immediate termination. I would further suggest that you invite the teacher to apologise to the class.
If following this procedure, the teacher's use of crude and offensive language continues, I would immediately initiate a formal complaint to the principal of the school.
Why is it that colleges are not reducing the points requirements for their courses, even though there were fewer children taking the Leaving Certificate each year?
Colleges do not set points for their courses. All colleges set three requirements for students, which they must meet prior to being offered a place.
All colleges set a minimum entry requirement for students. In the National University of Ireland this is called matriculation, other colleges simply refer to the requirement as minimum entry requirement. Once a student has crossed this first barrier to entry, they must then meet the course entry requirement, which is specific to a particular programme. For example, science courses require a student to have successfully passed a science subject in their Leaving Cert.
All students who apply for a place on a course and successfully meet both the college and course entry requirement are placed on a list, in order of their Leaving Cert points score. Offers of places will continue to be made by the college through the CAO or by the college directly until all places are filled.
The points total of the last student to receive a place is then published, to provide a guide to future students, as to the minimum target to aim for.
As to why points are not coming down as student numbers decrease, the answer is that a large number of mature students, i.e. those over 23 years of age, are choosing to apply to enter third-level education. This trend is to be welcomed as all our citizens should be encouraged to view educational opportunity as a life-long process and not just an aspect of childhood and adolescence
Brian Mooney is president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors. You can e-mail him your questions to bmooney@irish-times.ie
