Exam stress and the media

Madam, – In the eight years since I sat my Leaving Cert, I continue to be appalled by how media organisations exploit the Leaving…

Madam, – In the eight years since I sat my Leaving Cert, I continue to be appalled by how media organisations exploit the Leaving and Junior Certificate exams. They do so while complaining about the stress that is placed on students and emphasising how the exams are not “the end of the world”.

If we were serious as a society about reducing stress on young adults sitting exams and allowing them the space to study and think in a clear fashion, we would ban all reporting on and about the exams. No coverage on the radio, no special supplements in the papers in the countdown to exams, and particularly a moratorium on eve-of- exam reporting on RTÉ TV, which brings the hype directly into living rooms of students the night before exams start.

The constant chatter on the exams in the media has turned into an industry of its own and the onus is now on the Department of Education and the Minister, Ruairí Quinn to shut it down in the interests of students. – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL A O’CONNOR,

Kiltoom, Co Roscommon.