A chara, – The number of people in this country who wake up each morning without a nightmare about the Leaving Certificate Examination is an ever-decreasing number! While some reform has taken place, the format of assessment in the Leaving Certificate examination has not changed greatly over the years. We assess students mainly by written examinations, some over three hours long, with two different disciplines on the same day.
How fair is it to our students and the disciplines involved to ask students sit, for example, a written examination in geography for almost three hours in the morning and another examination of 2½ hours in mathematics in the afternoon of the same day?
I suggest a number of steps should be taken on the format of the current assessment of students at Leaving Certificate. The Leaving Certificate programme should be modularised and assessed over a two-year period. An obvious time to do this would be at Christmas time and summer each year. Most post-primary schools carry out assessments at these times in any event. The subject specialists are the people best placed to decide what to assess at each stage and what percentage of the marks should be allocated to each assessment.
In languages, for example, I can see a very good reason for assessing the oral component at the end of the programme, as at present. It is possible to have up to 50 per cent of the assessment completed at the end of fifth year. I would favour giving the results of each assessment to the students, as feedback is an essential component of learning.
For students who are not sure if they would like to take ordinary level or higher level, I suggest there is sufficient material common to both levels in most subjects to have fifth year as a common year. Students could then choose at the beginning of sixth year. The option to take the ordinary level or the higher level from the beginning of fifth year should also be available.
I think a modularised Leaving Certificate would decrease the pressure on students, and we might get a more accurate assessment of their abilities and it would reduce the “on-the-day” performance
Unfortunately, tragedy visits some of our students each year during the Leaving Certificate. I am thinking in particular of students who lose parents or siblings. I think a very limited early repeat option should be made available for these students. In the current system, the penalty of a year is excessive.
I think this system would be fairer and a more accurate assessment of students’ abilities, and not to mention a significant reduction of pressure on the students, especially at a time when there is so much concern about the stress on young people. – Is mise,
SEÁN de BRÚN,
Senior Lecturer,
Head of the Department
of Language, Literacy,
and Mathematics Education,
Mary Immaculate College,
Limerick.