From Leaving CertiFiCate to Leaving SChooL a Longitudinal Study ...

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From Leaving Certificate to Leaving School
Interviewer: Would you listen to them, would you listen to their advice?
Yeah.
It depends.
It depends.
But if you know you are not able for something.
Then I wouldn’t do it. (Barrack Street, girls’ school, working-class
intake)
Students in Barrack Street also felt that teachers should give greater encouragement
to them ‘to do like what level you are able for’ and give
them appropriate advice regarding level selection.
Where students had more of a say in the level taken, moving levels
was, as might be expected, often prompted by the perceived difficulty of
the subject in question.
At the start of this year I moved down to pass Irish. I just chose myself,
I didn’t like it.
Interviewer: So did teachers have any say there as well?
Yeah, they tried to convince me but I said no, I want to move down
to pass. (Argyle Street, coed school, mixed intake)
Most students felt that their subject levels were important because they
related directly to obtaining the CAO ‘points’ necessary for higher education
entry, with some groups describing the Leaving Certificate exams
as ‘a points race’ (Harris Street, middle-class girls’ school) and others
describing taking ordinary level subjects as ‘a bit of a waste’ (Park
Street, boys’ school, mixed intake):
A huge difference between higher level and ordinary level points.
It depends what you want to do.
Points for certain things like you need, say for primary teaching or
P.E. teaching, you need to have higher Irish and you need to get a C1