Leaving Cert: Where is the pressure coming from?

Education editor Carl O’Brien says Ireland is an outlier in Europe when it comes to the Leaving Certificate. In no other country are the stakes so high for students, is there so much pressure on them to perform in a single terminal exam and where the exam features so strongly in the media.

That it is so linked to third level entry is part of the problem – with the “points race” to the forefront, not least because so many students in Ireland go on to college. But there are alternatives as the education editor points out – though perhaps snobbery stops students and their parents fully exploring them.

Today, the gruelling exam kicks off with English.

Katie Mellett who sat the Leaving Cert last year in Donegal talks of the pressure of the exam and traces where it came from for her.

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There has been talk of significant reform for many years, and Covid seemed to be an opportunity for long-term change, but that hasn’t happened. Will it ever? And what’s stopping it. Maybe the Leaving Cert is the best we can do. Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.