Diarmaid Ferriter: No easy solution to the points race dilemma

This month marks the 25th anniversary of the death of pioneering educational journalist Christina Murphy, who from the early 1980s had responsibility for education coverage in The Irish Times.

Murphy, however, became something more than that; as countless students and parents were dealing with the complications of the Central Applications Office (CAO) system, established in the late 1970s, Murphy responded in detail to their individual queries, on the phone through a dedicated helpline as well as on the page and through numerous school visits and speaking engagements.

As third-level study was opened up in the 1980s, Murphy was not only aware of the need to communicate effectively about the complexities of the system, but also the onus on those with responsibility for that system to be fair and transparent; she scorned elitism and cruel bureaucratic coldness and was also praised for highlighting numerous anomalies in the system and helping to clear them.

After her death it was noted that her “Points Race” column, which she started in August 1985, was “so incisive and comprehensive that even officials of the Department of Education had to consult her on the intricacies of the recently introduced points system in the early days”.

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Random selection of those who have the requisite points is indeed cruel – I missed my own first CAO choice because of it – but there must be some kind of lottery given the need to manage student numbers

The “points race” phrase had also been used in an interview Murphy did with Fine Gael minister for education Gemma Hussey in February 1983; Hussey expressed concern about the pressures it was creating and the focus on students pursuing points in subjects “that might not have much relevance to careers they intend to follow”.

Hussey also suggested the intense preoccupation with points was facilitating a narrowing of education; too many, for example, were leaving school ignorant of how Irish politics and society and its institutions worked.

When Murphy began her column there were roughly 10,000 university level places available between the universities, national institutes for higher education, and degree-level courses in the colleges of the DIT and Thomond College of Education. There were another roughly 6,000 places available in the RTCs, colleges of education and other smaller colleges.

Matters were greatly complicated by different points systems operated by the various colleges and universities. Murphy was acutely conscious of the role of the media in adding to the pressures; journalist Harry Browne, who worked with Murphy, noted in Magill magazine in 2006 that “she worried about the journalistic value and effect on teenagers of the growing hype” but she was also remarkably committed to assisting them.

This year the CAO issued round-one offers to 55,221 applicants, a measure of the increase in student numbers and third-level options in recent decades, but many of Murphy’s concerns remain potent, now exacerbated by the implications of grade inflation arising from the pandemic and a resultant unsustainable increase in points requirements for many courses.

Murphy’s successors have responded to these pressures with incisive coverage while acknowledging that there are no easy solutions to the problems. Random selection of those who have the requisite points is indeed cruel – I missed my own first CAO choice because of it – but there must be some kind of lottery given the need to manage student numbers.

Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris said, 'there is a place for everyone at third level', but is it a place for everyone?

At the same time, student anxiety and mental health issues have been too pervasive for too long and now many who have just started their Leaving Certificate year are already fretting about the consequences of recent developments for course points next year.

There is much to be said in favour of retaining some form of continuous assessment for future Leaving Cert students, but the sense of what constitutes a suitable pathway after the end of their second-level education needs to be broadened to include apprenticeships and further education and training.

This week, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien suggested that implementation of the recently announced Housing for All plan will require an additional 27,000 workers in the construction sector: “we need to work on that now, on the apprenticeship side”. This year’s sixth years will at least be able to see their apprenticeship choices on the CAO application, which is a good start.

As is now customary when the Leaving Cert results are released, Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris said, “there is a place for everyone at third level”, but is it a place for everyone? College drop-out rates would suggest not; a Higher Education Authority Report of 2018 highlighted that one in six third-level students drop out of their course during their first year.

Given all the current pressures and uncertainties, this figure is likely to rise. More significantly, Harris has also declared “we have to end the points race. We have an obsession in this country about the points race as if the number received accurately reflects how bright or capable a person is”.

He is correct, and with the various educational authorities, he needs to chart a way out of this obsession.