READERS' RESPONSES:The use of the HPat may bring greater fairness to the system
Dear Sir,
Many questions have been raised about the Health Professions Admission Test (HPat) and its usage for entry into medical school ( Testing the gender balance, August 25th).
A more basic issue is whether the Leaving Cert points system itself is gender neutral. I believe the data shows that it actually appears to favour females.
This is because those applying for medicine are generally required to take three languages (English, Irish and a foreign language) and one mathematical subject.
Examining the results for the languages shows that, over the years, girls get a lot more honours, with the gender gap being even larger when one looks at the number of A1s.
In maths, the figures are reversed (although the magnitude of the difference is decreased) with boys getting a few more honours and quite a lot more A1s. (Sometimes one hears that girls are now doing better in maths but that is only in terms of the percentages getting honours, not A1s, and does not take into account the fact that a smaller number are sitting the higher level paper.) Then recall that only six subjects are counted for points, so students do not have to count the grade from any mathematical subject.
So the Leaving Cert appears not to be gender neutral. Looking at the issue in this way suggests a supplementary assessment, such as the HPat, may bring greater fairness to the system.
Yours, etc,
Tom Kindlon,
Dublin 15
Re: David Coleman’s Ask the Expert column
Dear Sir,
I have been reading with interest the letters in David Coleman’s column of recent weeks regarding children’s night terrors.
I would just like to briefly tell you our story in the event that it may help some other parents.
My daughter started having night terrors at around two and a half years of age.
She had recently started playschool at this point so we thought that may have been it although she seemed happy enough there.
They continued pretty much every night, usually about 50 minutes after falling asleep until June just gone, when she was almost four.
Last January we realised she had sleep apnoea. She regularly would stop breathing in her sleep. We knew at this stage that she had particularly large tonsils, so we did some research on the internet and found this was often connected with sleep apnoea in children which, in turn, could also be the cause of night terrors.
We believe when she stopped breathing during certain stages of her sleep, it caused the night terror.
My GP referred us to a consultant who did an adenotonsillectomy in June. Since then she has had no night terrors or sleep apnoea.
I cannot tell you how relieved we are to have this fixed. It was very distressing listening to her breathing getting worse over time as well as watching her night terrors. Her humour is much more even now, and she is calmer in herself.
I realise that this is not every child’s problem but perhaps you could mention the link with large tonsils in the event that it may apply to some other children.
Yours etc,
Ciara Finn,
by e-mail