Q & A

Your questions answered by Education Correspondent Kathryn Holmquist

My teenager is trying to make decisions around filling in the CAO form. He seems too young to be having to choose a career already. I keep hearing stories about students with high points who got on their chosen course, only to drop out or change courses after a year and start third level all over again.

The best advice is to ensure that your son or daughter does research into the various careers of interest before filling in the form. The ideal way to do this is to meet people already working in that field and spend at least a day with them at work. The CAO form can appear abstract. There are so many choices that it's easy to become confused. To put a course into perspective, it is essential to find out all you can about it. Talking with students who are doing the course is a good idea. Don't be afraid to contact admissions officers and visit third-level institutions.

Am I the only parent who finds secondary school parent/ teacher meetings intimidating? You get five minutes, you have to queue and the one person central to the whole thing - your child - isn't allowed to be present.

More parents are looking for a different approach to these meetings. Currently, the National Parents' Council (Post-Primary) and teachers' unions are discussing this issue with the Department of Education and Science. The council is proposing that parent/teacher meetings become parent/teacher/student meetings. It is also suggesting that instead of queuing to see individual teachers, a student and parent(s) would meet for a longer period of time with a form teacher or someone else with an overview of the student's progress. Specific subject teachers could become involved where there were difficulties.

More flexibility from the schools in scheduling these meetings is also on the agenda, since it can be next to impossible for some parents to attend during the day. Unions are open to negotiation on this point, but it's too early to say what a solution will be.

Like the National Parents' Council, the Department of Education also wants to see parent/teacher meetings taking place at more convenient times for parents. Indeed, a commitment to this was included in the last national pay deal a few years ago.

Under the current deal, Sustaining Progress, the teaching unions have agreed to more flexible arrangements for the meetings, as part of their commitment to "modernisation" in the education sector.

Some gradual progress is being made. Under the deal, some of the parent/teacher meetings will have to take place outside normal school hours.

In practice, we are probably talking about meetings at second level taking place between, say, 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., still not an ideal time for many working parents but at least an improvement on the current situation. In fairness, many teachers at both primary and second level are happy to meet parents before classes begin in the morning.

We are still some way from meetings at 8 p.m. but progress is being made.