Towards a Better Future

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Chapter Five: Transition from Second Level to Higher Education since then, a 14-point scale has been used: (A1, A2, B1, B2, B3, C1, C2, C3, D1, D2, D3, E, F). From 2017 onwards, a less detailed grading scheme (based on eight grades) will be used to indicate a candidate’s results. However, there will be no change in the way in which examiners will return results to the SEC – examiners will continue, as they have always done, to return results as raw scores. Is the Leaving Certificate fair and equitable? One of the often-mentioned attributes of the Leaving Certificate is its fairness. All candidates, whatever their social, cultural or economic background, follow the same syllabi and are assessed in the same way. No student, teacher or examiner has access to the examination papers in advance of the examination. Candidates’ scripts are anonymous from an examiner’s perspective – the examiner does not know whose scripts s/he has marked, what school they attend or what part of the country they come from. As the examinations are taken in rigorously-supervised conditions, the public can be confident that the scripts are entirely the candidate’s own work, that no assistance has been given and that no plagiarism has occurred. The penalties for cheating are very severe and only a tiny number of candidates have been found cheating over the years. However, not all students fare equally in the examination stakes. Students who excel linguistically and logically are at a significant advantage. The terminal written examinations place a very heavy emphasis on two of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences – the logical/mathematical and the linguistic – often to the detriment of other intelligences (Gardner, 2006) 7 . A better alignment between the syllabus aims and their assessment would require more varied modes of assessment, which in turn would encourage the development, and application of other skills and intelligences. Students from higher socio-economic backgrounds achieve better Leaving Certificate results than their less socially-privileged peers. In schools with a high concentration of students from lower socio-economic backgrounds (e.g. DEIS schools), overall examination results are generally poorer than in schools where there is a broader social mix of students. This can be due to the fact that such schools have a higher proportion of students with literacy and numeracy problems; or that student motivation may be lower or that the expectations of parents and teachers might be more limited. These factors may also be exacerbated by the fact that some schools in less advantaged areas sometimes offer fewer Leaving Certificate subjects at higher level, especially in the STEM area. In addition, students from lower socio-economic groups are less likely to be in a position to pay for additional out-of-school coaching or grinds, which can enhance a student’s confidence and their performance in the Leaving Certificate examination (Smyth et al., 2015). 7 Gardner posits that each individual possesses at least eight intelligences: - linguistic, visual, logical/mathematical, musical, bodily-kinaesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. — 89 —
Towards a Better Future: A Review of the Irish School System Should Leaving Certificate Assessment be reformed? There seems to be an increasing consensus among educationists and the public at large that the Leaving Certificate needs to be reformed, to ensure greater congruence between the stated learning outcomes of the curriculum and the various syllabi, and the modes and techniques of assessment. There is a long history in Ireland of teachers objecting to assessing their own students for certification purposes, especially in a high-stakes examination like the Leaving Certificate. Given the difficulties encountered in the past decades in reforming Junior Certificate assessment, it is unlikely that this objection will be overcome in relation to the Leaving Certificate in the foreseeable future. However, some actions could be taken to reduce the pressure created by a single terminal examination and to ensure greater congruence between the desired outcomes of the subject syllabi and their assessment. The existing examination system could be supplemented with a greater variety of modes and techniques of assessment to ensure that the syllabi and the examinations are more closely aligned and that the skills which have been identified as necessary for lifelong learning, such as analytic reasoning, critical thinking, the ability to generate fresh ideas, the practical application of theory etc., will be recognised and rewarded by the assessment system. Supplemental modes of assessment could include projects, portfolios and other assignments completed in supervised but non-examination conditions. Essays and open-book questions answered in supervised classroom conditions and externally marked could also be considered. Instead of requiring students to sit one written examination at the end of the final year, two or more sittings at different points throughout the two-year Senior Cycle could be an option. New and different forms of assessment might also reduce the current reliance on pen and paper tests and provide for greater use of new technologies, which might include online submission of essays (written under supervision) and computer-marked multiple-choice questions. Ireland has a lot of experience of assessing student performance by modes other than terminal examinations. The SEC could build on the experience gained in the assessment of the Junior Certificate School Programme, Leaving Certificate Applied, Youthreach, as well as the Further Education and Training Awards Council (FETAC) 8 . HIGHER EDUCATION SELECTION – THE HISTORY OF THE POINTS SYSTEM Under legislation governing higher education in Ireland, universities and institutes of technology are responsible for their own policies in relation to the selection and admission of students. Until the 1960s, there was no need for a selection system in Irish universities as demand for places was broadly in line with the number of places available. Following the introduction of free second-level education and a 8 See for example, A, Hyland (ed.) Innovations in Assessment in Irish Education UCC 1998. — 90 —
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