Attention to detail rewarded on 'searching papers'

EXAM DIARY: LEAVING CERTIFICATE RELIGIOUS STUDIES HIGHER AND ORDINARY LEVELS IT WAS a testing morning for less than a thousand students sitting yesterday's Leaving Certificate religious studies exam.

Students were grilled on specific elements of the course and attention to detail was rewarded on "two very searching papers", according to teachers.

"Both papers were wide-ranging and challenging - students had to work very hard for their 40 marks in some places," said Olivia Maher, a subject representative with the ASTI. Some students laboured over a question which asked them to assess evidence for the existence of Jesus as presented in the writings of Josephus, Pliny the Younger, St Paul and Tacitus.

The section on moral decision making was also regarded as more difficult than in previous years.

This is the fourth year that the Leaving Cert religious studies has been examined. At 869 students, uptake for the subject is still low. Almost half of all Leaving Cert candidates, more than 24,000, take the subject at Junior Certificate level.

"Now that there are four years of past papers available, the subject will probably attract more students," said Ms Maher, who teaches at CBS secondary school Kilkenny.

Yesterday's higher level paper covered a wide range of subjects including the Socratic vision of life, the moral philosophy of hedonists and the development of feminist spiritualities.

There was also a section asking students to outline the origins and main religious practices of a choice of movements including African traditional religion, Chinese religion, the Baha'i faith and a new religious movement.

They were also invited to discuss the influence of secularisation on the pattern of religious belief and practice in Ireland today.

"While sections 1 and 2 examined very specific parts of the course, there was scope in section 3 for students to explore what they have discovered in the course of their studies," Ms Maher added.

The ordinary level paper, taken by 138 students, was also considered tough in places. The question of examining the evidence for the existence of Jesus arose again and students would only have studied this as a minor part of the syllabus's Christianity section.

"There was not much in the textbooks on this; students would have had to know the contents of one particular page to be able to answer this question," Ms Maher said.

"These were very searching papers at both levels."