LEAVING CERT ECONOMICS HIGHER AND ORDINARY:IT SEEMS recession, depression, doom and gloom provide the backdrop for studying economics.
Never before has this minority subject been so much a part of mainstream thinking, and that fact was reflected in a highly-topical Leaving Cert exam yesterday morning.
“Virtually every question in the higher level paper had data about the current economic or global situation,” said the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland’s Michael Finnegan, a teacher in Wilson’s Hospital School, Multyfarnham, Co Westmeath. “The students were asked to apply economic theory to real-life situations.”
Jenny Harrington of the Business Studies Teachers Association who teaches in the Presentation Secondary School in Thurles, Co Tipperary, said “students generally seemed to like the higher level paper”. Teachers agreed the short questions were “fine”.
The longer questions were nicely split between micro and macro-economics, according to Ms Harrington. “There were four of each, which was good to see.”
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the EU-IMF “financial support package” and the 2011 census were among the current issues that came up.
“Knowledge of past papers was rewarded,” said Keith Hannigan, economics teacher in the Institute of Education.
He noted that many of the topics that made an appearance in recent years were repeated.
Some elements of the long questions were challenging, however.
“In question six (b) students were required to give four reasons why commercial banks should be regulated in Ireland. A reasoned response to this question would challenge even the best Leaving Certificate candidate,” Mr Hannigan said.
Question three (c) in which students were asked to advise the Minister on the investment pros and cons in investing in public transport as opposed to road infrastructure was also, “challenging”, Ms Harrington said.
Mr Hannigan agreed.
“Only the very best candidates could have formulated a reasonable response to this question,” he said.
A slight surprise was the non-appearance of the topic of international trade in the long questions. It would have been expected as after all “it is the only piece of economic good news”, Mr Hannigan said.
“There was a good choice despite that,” he said.
At ordinary level, the paper was again up to date, with examiners clearly making an effort to relate economic theory to real life.
“The paper was good,” Mr Finnegan said.
“It was topical and much the same as ever. Students should have been reasonably pleased with it.”