LEAVING CERT RELIGIOUS EDUCATION:STUDENTS ASKED to consider the meaning of life were left struggling with the meaning of the question on yesterday's higher level religious education exam.

Leaving Cert candidates complained that a number of questions on the five-year-old exam were “vague” and “awkward”.

David Martin of Mount Temple Comprehensive School said that his students had difficulty with the first question on the paper.

Students were asked to outline two examples of “how experiences in life today could make a person question the meaning of life”.

“There was very little in this question to indicate what was expected of students,” he said.

The question on world religions was also criticised for lack of clarity. Students were asked to compare “the celebration of a religious festival in one of the above major world religions (Buddhism, Hinduism or Islam) with the way in which an event from the founding story is marked in either Christianity or Judaism.”

Some students complained they did not know whether the “founding story” referred to creationist beliefs or to the foundation of the religions.

“In a subject like this it is crucial that the phrasing of questions leaves no room for doubt,” said one teacher. “Are they trying to make the exam awkward, instead of working to bring out the best in students?”

As expected, there was a question on Darwin in the section entitled “Religion and Science”.

Yesterday’s paper also featured a question on religion and gender, and on the Bible.

Religious education is still being rolled out across the country and was only examined for the fifth time yesterday.

Plans to offer the subject in more schools are under threat as budget cuts have put pressure on support services for individual subjects, say teachers.

The Leaving Certificate finished yesterday.